β-Mercaptoethanol

(Molecular Biology Grade)

Overview

β-Mercaptoethanol (BME) is a potent reducing agent commonly used in biochemistry and molecular biology applications to reduce disulfide bonds in proteins and denatured protein samples. It has a strong sulfhydryl group that can react with the disulfide bonds in proteins, resulting in the formation of reduced sulfhydryl groups (-SH). This reaction can cause protein denaturation or unfolding, which makes the proteins more accessible for analysis or manipulation.