protein denaturation

[daisyyycc]

my project is on protein denaturation and i want to find out what my constants and control will be. it's on whether the proteins, from an egg,hair, and milk, denature at the same temperature.

[norman40]

Hi daisyyycc,

An independent variable is something that you, as the scientist, change in an experiment so you can observe a response in a dependent variable. There may be other variables that could affect the dependent variable response that you want to observe. These variables must be identified and controlled (or kept constant) to minimize any effects on the dependent variable. There is a helpful tutorial on variables here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... evariables

You might want to make a list of variables other than temperature that the proteins might encounter during your experiments. For example, stirring or shaking, amount of time the protein is heated, container the protein is in when heated, etc. These would be items you want to keep constant. That is, the egg, hair and milk samples should be treated the same way.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

[daisyyycc]

Hi! Thank you so much for your help. I am still confused on what the control group will be for this project. Should I change my question, Do the proteins albumin, casein, and keratin denature at the same temperature, to something else? You suggested that The amount of time the protein is heated can be a constant, but wouldn't that affect my project?

Thank you x

[norman40]

Hi daisyyycc,

Based on the information you've posted your research question seems to be reasonable.

You should try to keep the experimental conditions the same (constant) for all of the proteins you test. One of the experimental conditions will be how long your proteins are heated at the temperature you choose. You should heat all of the proteins for the same amount of time. Otherwise, heating time will be another independent variable.

A control group is a group in an experiment that isn't subjected to the experimental treatment. Observations about the control group are used as a reference for comparison to observations made for the test group. Not all experiments need to have a control group.

In your project the experimental treatment is heating to a specific temperature. The control group would be the unheated proteins. The test group is the heated proteins. You would compare observations about the extent of denaturation for the unheated and the heated proteins.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

[daisyyycc]

Hi A. Norman,

Thank you SO MUCH for responding quickly! This has helped a lot! So, what you're saying, for the control group, is to denature the proteins without using heat? For example, I know there are other ways to denature a protein : alcohol, acids, and bases.

[norman40]

Hi daisyyycc,

A control group has no experimental treatment applied at all. So your control group proteins would not be denatured or heated. In other words the control proteins would be “as-is”. Observations about the untreated (and non-denatured) proteins could be used for comparison with the heated, denatured proteins. Some additional information about control groups might help clarify things:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatment ... rol_groups

https://explorable.com/scientific-control-group

Many experiments don't need to have a control or control group. A control group would be useful in your experiment if you wanted to show photos of the proteins before and after heating. If you have another way (other than visual) of gauging denaturation a control group may be less useful.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman