Tuesday, September 20, 2011
SensoLyte® β-Galactosidase Assay Kits – Fluorimetric & Colorimetric
β-galactosidase, a widely used reporter enzyme, is used in the study of gene expression, protein-protein interactions,1 and normalization of transfection efficiency.2 β-galactosidase, enzyme encoded by the lacZ gene of E. coli, catalyzes the hydrolysis of β-galactosides into monosaccharides.
AnaSpec, EGT Group offers three assay kits for measuring β-galactosidase activity – the SensoLyte® MUG β-Galactosidase Assay Kit (Ex/Em= 360/460 nm), SensoLyte® FDG β-Galactosidase Assay Kit (Ex/Em= 490/520 nm), and SensoLyte® ONPG β-Galactosidase Assay Kit (Abs=420 nm). One major advantage in using fluorimetric assays is that they are several times more sensitive than the colorimetric assay. The substrate provided in the colorimetric assay is widely used in immunohistochemistry.
Table 1. Comparison of the three SensoLyte® β–Galactosidase assay kits.
Figure 1. Detection of β-galactosidase activity with the SensoLyte® MUG β-Galactosidase Activity Assay Kit (A), SensoLyte® FDG β-Galactosidase Activity Assay Kit (B), and SensoLyte® ONPG β-Galactosidase Activity Assay Kit (C); with lowest detection limits at 15 fg, 10 pg and 0.1 ng, respectively.
References
- Rossi, F. et al. PNAS 94, 8405 (1997).
- Thompson CD. et al. Biotechniques 27, 824 (1999).
- Plovins, A. et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 60, 4638 (1994).