Tricine is an

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...

that is used in

buffer solution 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 ...

s. The name tricine comes from

tris Tris, or tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, or known during medical use as tromethamine or THAM, is an organic compound with the formula (HOCH2)3CNH2, one of the twenty Good's buffers. It is extensively used in biochemistry and molecular biology as ...

and

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid ( carbamic acid is unstable), with the chemical formula NH2‐ CH2‐ COOH. Glycine is one of the proteinog ...

, from which it was derived.Good, N.E., et al., Biochemistry, v. 5, 467 (1966). It is a white crystalline powder that is moderately soluble in water. 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 ...

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

that has a pKa1 value of 2.3 at 25 °C, while its pKa2 at 20 °C is 8.15. Its useful buffering range of pH is 7.4-8.8. Along with bicine, it is one of Good's buffering agents. Good first prepared tricine to buffer chloroplast reactions.

Applications

Tricine is a commonly used electrophoresis buffer and is also used in resuspension of cell pellets. It has a higher negative (more negative) charge than

allowing it to migrate faster. In addition its high ionic strength causes more

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

movement and less

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

movement. This allows for low

molecular weight A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

proteins to be separated in lower percent acrylamide gels. Tricine has been documented in the separation of proteins in the range of 1 to 100

kDa The dalton or unified atomic mass unit (symbols: Da or u) is a non-SI unit of mass widely used in physics and chemistry. It is defined as of the mass of an unbound neutral atom of carbon-12 in its nuclear and electronic ground state and at re ...

by electrophoresis. The tricine buffer at 25 mmol/L was found to be the most effective buffer among the ten tested for ATP assays using

firefly luciferase Firefly luciferase is the luciferase, light-emitting enzyme responsible for the bioluminescence of fireflies and click beetles. The enzyme catalyses the oxidation of firefly luciferin, requiring oxygen and Adenosine triphosphate, ATP. Because of ...

. Tricine has also been found to be an effective scavenger of hydroxyl radicals in a study of radiation-induced membrane damage.Hicks, M., and Gebicki, J. M., "Rate constants for reaction of hydroxyl radicals with Tris, Tricine, and Hepes buffers." "FEBS Lett.", 199(1):92-94.

References

{{reflist Triols Buffer solutions Amino acid derivatives Zwitterions

Applications

See also

References