ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the general principles of visualization of enzymes on electrophoretic gels, which includes descriptions of histochemical, autoradiographic, bioautographic, two-dimensional spectroscopic, immunoblotting, and other methods. It describes the structure of enzyme sheets and presents a general considerations, comments, and recommendations concerning the choice of support medium and zymogram technique, the recording and preservation of zymograms, resource-saving strategies, and troubleshooting and safety regulations. Detection of enzymes on electrophoretic gels means visualization of gel areas occupied by specific enzyme molecules after their electrophoretic separation. The basis for the specific enzyme detection was set in 1939 by the pioneering efforts of Gomori, who developed histochemical methods for visual identification of sites of alkaline phosphatase activity in animal tissues. Enzyme electrophoresis remains the most simple and powerful tool for separation and identification of the second-level structural gene products.
