Proteins Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Proteins - Lab Report Example Proteins are essential nutrients and are therefore significant to the body, a factor that identifies the need to understand their presence in substances for nutritional, and other, purposes. An understanding of protein levels in the body is also important in determining changes from equilibrium fluid compositions. There are many ways in which protein concentrations in substances, particularly solutions, can be determined. The most common approach is the application of a regression analysis model to develop a relationship between protein concentration in a solution and absorbance rate that can be experimentally determined. The developed relationship can then be used to determine concentrations of proteins in substances, under similar conditions, based on the absorption rates in proteins from those solutions. This paper explores the use Bradford approach to determination of protein concentration. In order to use the approach to determine the concentrations, the paper tests the null hyp othesis that there is no significant relationship between concentration of protein solutions and absorption rates. Applied research method involved observation of experimental result from the Bradford approach to establish, analytically, existence of a relationship. The relationship is then used to determine concentration unknown proteins solutions. Analysis of the results identifies existence of a significant relationship. This is because of the small p value (p value= 0.000394) relative to the level of significance, 0.05. The paper therefore concludes validity of the method but identifies errors that lead to inconsistent concentrations for the unknown solutions. Introduction and background information Protein quantification is an important biological concept with a wide scope of applications. This is majorly because proteins form fundamental structures of living cells and organs. This also identifies the need for understanding their importance in the body as well as the need for p rotein based nutrients. Identification of a specific level of need for protein components is for example important to nutritionists who need to know the recommended amount of proteins that an individual should take, a scope that identifies the need to understand protein concentration of different substances for recommendation of appropriate quantities that can be consumed. Knowledge of protein concentration can similarly be applied in health care environments to determine presence of diseases in a body (Chem, p. 105). The Bradford’s approach to determination of protein concentration is one of the applicable techniques that is easy to apply and is time efficient (Mnstate, p. 1). It employs the spectroscopy technology that uses light waves to determine concentration. The basis of application of the approach is absorption of a dye into protein (Clarke, p. 1). The absorbed dye, whose concentration varies directly with the concentration of the absorbing protein then, forms the bas is of determining the relationship between protein’s concentration and absorbance property (Cuntapay, p. 1). The basis further relies on change in visibility of the used dye to determine the level of absorbance (Ruf, p. 1). The method’s determination of the concentration of an unknown protein is further based on the principle that given similar conditions, such as the solvent and factors such as temperature, concentration of protein in a solution is the sole determinant of absorbance property. As a result, different proteins with similar concentrations will exhibit the same absorption rate if all other factors are constant. This further means that any other protein under the same conditions obeys a developed theory, in an equation of relationship between protein concentration and absorption rate (Thermo, p. 1). Such an equation is determined by regression analysis that establishes a relationship between protein concentration and absorption. The analysis, will in this c ase determine the rate of increase of absorption rate with each unit