A comparative electrophoretic analysis of mammalian hair and avian feather proteins

An improved one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate separation has allowed a detailed electrophoretic comparison of the proteins that constitute hairs and feathers isolated from various representative samples of mammalian, both placental and marsupial and avian species. The proteins from various species were S-carboxymethylated using labelled (14C)-iodoacetic acid and detected both by Coomassie stain and fluorography. Proteins from mammalian species were compared with respect to their molecular masses and relative cysteine content using laser densitometry of both Coomassie stained gels and fluorographs of 14C labelled gels. These results may be quite useful forensically as an adjunct to fibre analysis.