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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Large-scale Top-down Proteomics Using Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Published on: October 24, 2018
Fractionation of zein by size exclusion chromatography
Fangyi Zhu1, Aniket V Kale, Munir Cheryan
1Agricultural Bioprocess Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1302 West Pennsylvania Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. fyzhu@uiuc.edu
Abstract:
Zein is a group of alcohol-soluble corn proteins, which consists of several individual proteins. A single-step gel filtration chromatography method was developed to fractionate individual zeins from ethanol extracts of whole corn. A Superdex prep 75 column was used with different mobile phases to fractionate the zeins, which were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and UV spectrophotometry. With 70% aqueous ethanol as the mobile phase, fractions containing a mixture of alpha-zein/beta-zein and alpha-zein/delta-zein were obtained. With ammonium bicarbonate added to the 70% ethanol mobile phase, it was possible to obtain beta-zein and delta-zein fractions devoid of other proteins. However, all fractions containing alpha-zein also contained minor amounts of delta-zein and/or beta-zein. Almost all fractions also contained non-protein impurities.
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