The southwestern blot is so named as it encompasses elements of both the Southern and western blots. As it was developed in the Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan), this name is no doubt also a reference to their geographical location. There are also many other derivations of the technique, including middle-eastern blotting, far-eastern blotting and eastern-western blotting.įar-eastern blotting, which was published in 1998 by Dai Ishikawa and Takao Taki, is a technique for the analysis of lipids separated by high-performance thin layer chromatography. It was first described and popularized in 2009 by Thomas et al. The eastern blot refers to the detection of post-translational protein modification, with the use of different substrates to detect glycosylation, lipoylation and phosphorylation. Since then, other blotting methods have also been invented, including those aptly labeled as the eastern and southwestern blots. Want to keep up to date with the latest in the life sciences and western blotting?īecome a member of BioTechniques today for free> Regardless of this, the western blot technique still popularized thanks to the hearsay and support of fellow scientists.
This was largely due to their distaste for the naming convention. When Burnette submitted his methodology to Analytical Biochemistry in 1979, it was not very well received and his manuscript was rejected. Not only was this in recognition to the Southern and northern blotting techniques, but also to the geographical location of the lab being on the west coast of the USA. This technique was termed the ‘western blot’ (also known as the immunoblot). The blocking of non-specific binding sites of the antibody and protein A to the nitrocellulose paper enabled clear radiographic images of antibody specific antigens to be obtained. He utilized -labeled protein A as it could bind most types of antibody–antigen complexes and avoided the need to use a second radiolabeled antibody. He realized that electrophoresis facilitated the blotting of proteins from the SDS-PAGE gels onto nitrocellulose paper, which seemed to work better than chemically modified paper. He had tried and failed to combine a radioimmunoassay with SDS-PAGE electrophoresis but could not visualize the interactions between antibodies and the separated proteins in the polyacrylamide gels.īurnette took inspiration from the northern blot method and instead created a solid-phase replica of the gel. The scientists named this method the ‘northern blot’.Ī postdoc working in the lab of Robert Nowinski at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (WA, USA), W Neal Burnette (left), then attempted to identify specific antigens in a protein mixture, such as a cell extract. This technique also made use of a radio-labeled DNA probe, but was created in order to detect a specific RNA molecule within an RNA sample. Then, in 1977, James Alwin, David Kemp and George Stark from Stanford University (CA, USA), invented a technique that was incredibly similar to the Southern blot. Southern named the technique after himself. It involved the use of electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments based on size, then the transfer to a membrane and hybridization with a radio-labeled DNA probe in order to detect a specific DNA sequence within a DNA sample. In 1975, Southern invented a new method that enabled analysis of DNA identity, size and abundance.
Western blotting was named in a nod to a tradition that had been inadvertently started when Edwin Southern penned his new invention ‘the Southern blot’.įor the latest information on western blotting, check out our In Focus: Western Blotting. This might be news to some: scientists have a sense of humor (according to the origin story of the western blot, at least). However, there are some stories surrounding its invention that are definitely worth knowing. The western blot may appear to be just another staple lab technique.
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