Greetings,
        Shinhan Shiu wrote:
 
>Dear confocal people,
>
>I am now studying the tissue-specific distribution of a putative transmembrane
>receptor in Arabidopsis by fluorescence microscopy. According to the
>protocol I got for localization of a nuclear protein in corn, I have to treat
>thin sections with proteinase K which may have a detrimental effect to the
>protein I want to study.
>
>Does anyone have an idea about the rationale for apllying proteinase K? Or
>references discuss about it?
                                Proteinase K is used routinely for insitu
hybridization experiments, presumably to improve access of the probe to the
RNA. I have never heard of its being used in immunocytochemistry. It is
possible that the antigen of interest in the corn nucleus was so burried in
histones etc that some digestion of protein was required. Protein digestion
is certainly not a general requirement for immunolocalization of proteins!
 
        Hope this helps,
                        Tobias Baskin
 
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      /   \   /      / \       /    \      /        University of Missouri
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