Question

Phenol is an active protein denaturant.

(a) True

(b) False

This question was posed to me in homework.

I need to ask this question from Nucleic-acid Techniques topic in section Techniques in Cell Biology of Cell Biology

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

(a) True

Explanation:

Phenol is indeed an active protein denaturant. It is commonly used in laboratory settings, especially during the extraction of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA. Phenol works as a denaturant by disrupting the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins, thereby causing them to unfold and lose their biological activity. This denaturation helps in separating proteins from nucleic acids, as phenol is immiscible with water, and proteins tend to partition into the phenol phase, while nucleic acids remain in the aqueous phase.

In nucleic-acid techniques, phenol is used in combination with other chemicals like chloroform to purify RNA or DNA by separating it from contaminating proteins and lipids.

Correct Answer: (a) True