Legumes seed storage proteins characterization by SDS-PAGE and Lab-on-a-Chip electrophoresis

This study was conducted to analyze the seed storage proteins of grain legumes cultivars using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Lab-on-a-Chip (LoaC) electrophoresis. Using reference proteins, the relative accuracy and precision in estimating molecular weight was similar when these two methods were compared. However, the LoaC method had a shorter analysis time and higher resolution, demonstrating a significant advantage. The molecular weight estimation of grain legume storage proteins gave very similar results (R2 = 0.99). Relative quantification of the separated proteins also indicated good agreement of the two techniques (R2 = 0.81). Both methods can be used to analyze the composition of the legume seed proteins, but the LoaC method is more suited to the separation and detection of proteins, enabling low reagent consumption, easy operation and faster turnaround. The LoaC method seems suitable for legume quality screening and cultivar development where large numbers of samples need to be analyzed.

► Seed storage proteins of 15 cultivars from six legume species were analyzed.
► SDS-PAGE and micro fluidic Lab-on-the-Chip electrophoresis were compared.
► Both methods showed similar performance in the MW and relative quantity estimation.
► However, LoaC had significant advantages in legume seed storage protein analysis.