Chaotropic agent

A denaturating agent is a substance which disrupts the three dimensional structure in macromolecules such as proteins, DNA, or RNA and denatures them. A denaturating agent is a chaotropic agent, but chaotropic agents aren't necessarily denaturating agents. Chaotropic agents disrupt the intermolecular forces between water molecules, allowing proteins and other macromolecules to dissolve more easily. Chaotropic agents interfere with stabilizing intramolecular interactions mediated by non-covalent forces such as hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic effects.

Often structural features, as detected by means such as circular dichroism can be titrated in a chaotrope concentration-dependent fashion.

Chaotropic reagents include:

• Urea 6 - 8 mol/l
• Thiourea 2 mol/l
• Guanidinium chloride 6 mol/l
• Lithium perchlorate 4.5 mol/l

High generic salts can have chaotropic properties, by shielding charges and preventing the stabilization of salt bridges. Hydrogen bonding is stronger in nonpolar media, so salts, which increase the chemical polarity of the solvent, can also destabilize hydrogen bonding. Mechanistically this is because there are insufficient water molecules to effectively solvate the ions. This can result in ion-dipole interactions between the salts and hydrogen bonding species which are more favorable than normal hydrogen bonds.

See also

• Kosmotropic
• Hofmeister series
• Denaturation (biochemistry)

This chemical reaction article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Biomolecules Medicine stubs Chemical reaction stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР James McGarel-Hogg, 2nd Baron Magheramorne Thatcher Ministry Look at other dictionaries: Spin column-based nucleic acid purification — Silica on a minicolumn with water and with DNA sample in chaotropic buffer Column based nucleic acid purification is a solid phase extraction method to quickly purify nucleic acids. This method relies on the fact that the nucleic acid may bind… …   Wikipedia Submitochondrial particle — A submitochondrial particle is a compartmentalized membranous product of exposing mitochondria to ultrasound. This causes the cristae to pinch off forcing the inner mitochondrial membrane inside out. As a consequence, the F1 particle becomes… …   Wikipedia Column-based nucleic acid purification — is a solid phase extraction method to quickly purify nucleic acids. This method relies on the fact that the nucleic acid may bind (adsorption) to the solid phase (silica or other) depending on the pH and the salt content of the buffer, which may… …   Wikipedia Diatomaceous earth — A sample of diatomaceous earth Diatomaceous earth (  / …   Wikipedia Gel extraction — In molecular biology, gel extraction or gel isolation is a technique used to isolate a desired fragment of intact DNA from an agarose gel following agarose gel electrophoresis. After extraction, fragments of interest can be mixed, precipitated,… …   Wikipedia Lithium perchlorate — Chembox new Name = Lithium perchlorate ImageFile = Lithium perchlorate.png ImageSize = 150px ImageName = Lithium perchlorate IUPACName = Lithium perchlorate OtherNames = Perchloric acid, lithium salt Section1 = Chembox Identifiers CASNo = 7791 03 …   Wikipedia Guanidinium thiocyanate — Chembox new Name = Guanidinium thiocyanate ImageFile = Guanidinium thiocyanate.svg ImageName = IUPACName = OtherNames = Section1 = Chembox Identifiers SMILES = CASNo = 593 84 0 RTECS = Guanidinium thiocyanate (GITC) is a chemical compound that… …   Wikipedia Crude lysate — A crude lysate is the solution produced when cells are destroyed by disrupting their cell membranes, often with detergent or other chaotropic agent, in a process known as cytolysis. This releases the contents within the cell. Crude cell lysates… …   Wikipedia guanidinium chloride — (= guanidine hydrochloride) Chloride salt of guanidinium (C(NH2) 3) +, a powerful chaotropic agent that is used to denature proteins …   Dictionary of molecular biology разобщающий агент — Вещество, ионы которого могут растворить биологические мембраны, белки, денатурировать нуклеиновые кислоты, одним из таких веществ является гуанидин изотиоционат [http://www.dunwoodypress.com/148/PDF/Biotech Eng Rus.pdf] Тематики биотехнологии EN …   Справочник технического переводчика 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”