Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi!

I'm new to this forum and I've read through a lot of posts and a few papers on quantifying the percent composition of insects. Would anyone have any advice on running a limited experiment to test protein and lipid percentages? I am planning for next year and have currently read about creating a standard curve with albumin but do not know a good procedure for solubilizing my dried insects. Also, I am using a modified Bligh and Dyer extraction for my lipid analysis, using ethyl acetate and ethanol instead, but I similarly do not know what to run as my standard.

Thank you for spending the time to read this, and I hope you have an amazing day!

Hi Eugene,

I have a background in organic chemistry but have never tried to solubilize an insect! My guess would be that it requires a detergent like Triton X-100 plus a chaotropic chemical such as guanidinium chloride. You would need to eliminate the nucleic acids because you are not assaying for them and they might interfere with other reactions. Lipids being soluble in organics such as ether makes them fairly easy to separate and proteins are usually extracted through a procedure called salting out.

The details of all these methods are available online, but of course you need to do them under lab conditions with the appropriate protective clothing, goggles, gloves, etc.

Post again after you have done some more searching for the methods and have more questions.

Good luck,
Sybee