Question

consider an experiment where the researcher used western blotting to detect protein x, which weighs 50 kda in the whole cell lysates of normal cells and cancer cells. a western blot with two lanes. the first lane is labeled as normal and has a single band at 50 k d a. the second lane is labeled as cancer and has two bands, at 50 k d a and at 60 k d a. why are there two bands present in one of the lanes?

Answer 1

The two bands present in the cancer lane indicate that the protein X exists in two different forms in the cancer cells. The 50 kDa band represents the normal form of the protein, while the 60 kDa band represents an altered form of the protein. This altered form could be due to a mutation, post-translational modification, or some other kind of change in the structure of the protein.