Mercaptoethanol

Mercaptoethanol, also called beta-mercaptoethanol, BME, or 2-Mercaptoethanol, is a potent reducing agent that effectively cleaves and reduces disulfide bonds. It disrupts tertiary and quaternary protein structures and is often used to unfold native proteins. This property makes mercaptoethanol a useful reagent for preparing samples in denaturing protein electrophoresis, as well as for inactivating ribonucleases during some RNA isolation procedures. It has also been used in mammalian cell culture media to prevent toxic levels of oxygen radicals. Mercaptoethanol is an alternative to dithiothreitol (DTT), but DTT is more popular for use in SDS-PAGE as it is less toxic and less reactive. Mercaptoethanol is not stable in solution, so most protocols require daily supplementation. Visit the supplier page for more product information.