Selective silver stain of lysine-rich basic proteins separated in polyacrylamide gels.

A simple silver stain for selective visualization of lysine-rich proteins in polyacrylamide gels was developed. The specificity of the stain was confirmed with a variety of protein mixtures. The staining procedure requires a relatively short time (2.5~3 hours) and has a sensitivity comparable to that of the conventional Coomassie blue stain (about 0.1μg per band for lysine-rich histones). Differences between the new staining procedure and other "highly sensitive non-specific silver stains" are discussed.