This reminds me of a discussion/argument that I had with a labmate
recently. She argued that the reason for always keeping proteins in the cold
was to prevent denaturation. I believe that it must be for some other reason,
perhaps to prevent microorganism growth, or to slow down the activity of
proteases that may be present in the sample. It seems to me that at room
temperature, most proteins will be stable against denaturation. (Most of the
melting curves I've seen are quite flat around this temp.) The other point
is that we grow up our yeast at 36C and their proteins seem to work just
fine.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this one? I might very well be wrong.
(And no, I don't make a habit of leaving my proteins at RT!) %-).
Doug Roberts - "Will crystallize for food!!!"
