ACES is the common abbreviation for the compound ''N''-(2-Acetamido)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid.
ACES is one of
Good's buffers
Good's buffers (also Good buffers) are twenty buffering agents for biochemical and biological research selected and described by Norman Good and colleagues during 1966–1980. Most of the buffers were new zwitterionic compounds prepared and tested ...
developed in the 1960s to provide buffers with
pH ranging from 6.15-8.35 for use in various applications. With a
p''K''a of 6.9, it is often used as a
buffering agent
A buffer solution (more precisely, pH buffer or hydrogen ion buffer) is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base, or vice versa. Its pH changes very little when a small amount of strong acid or base is ...
in
biological and
biochemical research. It is a
zwitterion
In chemistry, a zwitterion ( ; ), also called an inner salt or dipolar ion, is a molecule that contains an equal number of positively- and negatively-charged functional groups.
: With amino acids, for example, in solution a chemical equilibrium wil ...
ic buffer with a useful buffering range of 6.1-7.5. The pioneering publication by Good and his co-workers described the synthesis and physical properties of ACES buffer.
Applications
ACES had been used to develop buffers for both
agarose
Agarose is a heteropolysaccharide, generally extracted from certain red seaweed. It is a linear polymer made up of the repeating unit of agarobiose, which is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose. Agarose is ...
and
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) is a technique widely used in biochemistry, forensic chemistry, genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology to separate biological macromolecules, usually proteins or nucleic acids, according to their ...
.
ACES use in
isoelectric focusing
Isoelectric focusing (IEF), also known as electrofocusing, is a technique for separating different molecules by differences in their isoelectric point (pI). It is a type of zone electrophoresis usually performed on proteins in a gel that takes ad ...
of
proteins has also been documented. Use of ACES has been published in a protocol for the analysis of bacterial
autolysins
Autolysins are endogenous lytic enzymes that break down the peptidoglycan components of biological cells which enables the separation of daughter cells following cell division. They are involved in cell growth, cell wall metabolism, cell division a ...
in a discontinuous
SDS-PAGE
SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) is a Discontinuous electrophoresis, discontinuous electrophoretic system developed by Ulrich K. Laemmli which is commonly used as a method to separate proteins with molecular m ...
system. Potential inhibition of ACES and other
Good buffers has been investigated in γ-aminobutyric acid receptor binding to rat brain synaptic membranes.
[Tunnicliff, G., and Smith, J.A., "Competitive inhibition of γ-aminobutyric acid receptor binding by N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ε-ethanesulfonic acid and related buffer." "J. Neurochem.", 36(3):1122-1126.]
References
Buffer solutions