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How Does DTT Affect Protein Structure?

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After doing a comparative analysis of fish protein I have been asked "What was the purpose of heating the fish protein sample with DTT?"
I have found conflicting answers from: "stabilization of the sample" to "DTT quantitivly reduces disulphide."

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Solution Summary

This solution discusses the two major ways DTT affects protein structure.

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In fact both answers are correct, it really depends on the concentration of DTT used.

DTT (dithiothreitol: C4H10O2S2) is a reducing agent that affects proteins in the following 2 ways;
1. DTT breaks disulphide bonds (these bonds are important for the three dimensional structure of many proteins)
2. Reduces free sulfhydryl groups (these SH2 side groups are important for ...

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