Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
Betaine is a simple little molecule:
It finds use in medicine in treating elevated homocysteine levels - a molecule that deserves its own entry. It also can act as a denaturant - things like urea, formamide, and guanidinium are useful for this in biology. Betaine, at the right concentration, can help to unfold DNA a little bit, while leaving certain DNA polymerases untouched. For this reason, some people use it in DNA amplification by PCR.
Comments
Quaternized proline (stachydrine) is as interesting for its curious cyto-protective properties.
Posted by: Uncle Al | February 14, 2007 12:21 PM