Lysozyme is a positively charged, basic protein under a reasonably neutral pH. In order to maintain this characteristic for ion-exchange chromatography, we will dialyze against a tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) buffer. An effective buffer over a pH range of ~6.5 to 9.7, Tris is the most commonly used buffer in biological research because it is the only inexpensive compound with a pKa in the slightly alkaline pH range. The majority of primary amines have pKa values greater than 9.0, but due to the strong electron withdrawing power of the three hydroxyl groups present on the methylene substitutents of Tris, the pKa of this buffer is ~8.0 at 25oC and optimal for our protein.
In a more general sense, dialyzing against a buffer is advantageous for a variety of reasons. Other than controlling both the salt concentration and pH, and therefore protecting our protein from denaturation, dialysis is often preformed against a buffer to prepare for the next step. Dialyzing against a buffer therefore not only removes the salt from our solution and prevents denaturation, but places the protein in the buffer needed for the next step in an experiment.
The last step in our extraction of lysozyme is centrifugation. During dialysis, some biological molecules (lipids, carbohydrates, etc.) will precipitate out of solution, and if these particles are not removed there is a chance they may interfere with the next step. In particular for our experiment, if the precipitates are not removed before ion-exchange there is a chance that they may clog the column and prevent the separation from working effectively. Thus, we must centrifuge our sample prior to this step in order to eliminate any potential risk.
Once the smaller solute molecules have been removed from our sample, we can then begin to separate the larger molecules by a form of ion-exchange chromatography. Ion-exchange is a separation technique utilized for nearly all kinds of charged molecules including large proteins, nucleotides, and even amino acids. The principle behind this technique is based on Coulombic interactions between the sample and the matrix. Specifically, the matrix, which is most commonly cellulose- and agarose-based resin, is coated with ionic functional groups capable of interacting with molecules exhibiting groups of opposing charges.
Overall, there are two major types of ion-exchange: (1) cation-exchange; and (2) anion-exchange. In cation-exchange, the matrix is coated with negatively charged functional groups (i.e. carboxymethyl (CM); —CH2COO-) in order to retain cations, while positively charged groups are utilized to retain anions (i.e. diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) (—CH2CH2NH(CH2CH3)2+). In this portion of the experiment we will be utilizing the cation-exchanger CM-Sephadex-25 which will effectively separate the positively charged lysozyme from molecules of negative and neutral charge.