Alpha Amylase Lab Report

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Alpha amylase is a protein enzyme. It is secreted by both the saliva and the pancreas. They It plays a very important role in the human digestive system. Glucose is one of the main sources of energy for the body, but the glucose molecule only forms part of larger molecules. One of the roles of digestion is to break these larger chains eg. Sucrose into individual glucose units which can then be used by the body. Alpha amylase hydrolysis the α-1,4 glucosidic bonds in large polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, it breaks starch chains into smaller units of just two or three glucose molecules such as glucose and maltose. Salivary a-amylace only provides partial digestion, when it reaches the stomach it is fully hydrolysed by amylaces secreted…show more content…
Proteins are separated using an electrical field. Before the proteins can be run on the gel they are bound by an anionic detergent called sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). This will give the α-amylase a net negative charge within a wide pH range. Meaning when the sample is applied to the gel and ran under these conditions the sample will separate on the basis of their size not charge. As the sample has a net negative charge it will travel towards the anode (+ electrode). Different concentrations of polyacrylamide can be used to affect the pore size, meaning the pore size can be altered to suit a particular protein. Usually a 10-15% acrylamide is used when separating out proteins. When the run is complete a stain is added eg. Coomassie blue, this will bind irreversible to the protein allowing the invisible protein bonds to become visible once electrophoresis is complete. SDS-PAGE separates small volumes of sample as the well can only hold 20µl. when running the proteins standard proteins of known molecular weights are also run, so at the end of electrophoresis the protein being separated can be compared against the molecular weights of the standard. These known standards have a protein range from
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