Question

Proteins can be precipitated out of aqueous solution by the addition of an electrolyte; this process is called “salting out” the protein. (a) Do you think that all proteins would be precipitated out to the same extent by the same concentration of the same electrolyte? (b) If a protein has been salted out, are the protein–protein interactions stronger or weaker than they were before the electrolyte was added? (c) A friend of yours who is taking a biochemistry class says that salting out works because the waters of hydration that surround the protein prefer to surround the electrolyte as the electrolyte is added; therefore, the protein’s hydration shell is stripped away, leading to protein precipitation. Another friend of yours in the same biochemistry class says that salting out works because the incoming ions adsorb tightly to the protein, making ion pairs on the protein surface, which end up giving the protein a zero net charge in water and therefore leading to precipitation. Discuss these two hypotheses. What kind of measurements would you need to make to distinguish between these two hypotheses?