ACES is the common abbreviation for the compound ''N''-(2-Acetamido)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid.
ACES is one of
Good's buffers
Good's buffers (also Good buffers) are twenty buffering agents for biochemical and biological research selected and described by Norman Good and colleagues during 1966–1980. Most of the buffers were new zwitterionic compounds prepared and tested ...
developed in the 1960s to provide buffers with
pH ranging from 6.15-8.35 for use in various applications. With a
p''K''a of 6.9, it is often used as a
buffering agent
A buffer solution (more precisely, pH buffer or hydrogen ion buffer) is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base, or vice versa. Its pH changes very little when a small amount of strong acid or base is ...
in
biological
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...
and
biochemical
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology ...
research. It is a
zwitterion
In chemistry, a zwitterion ( ; ), also called an inner salt or dipolar ion, is a molecule that contains an equal number of positively- and negatively-charged functional groups.
: With amino acids, for example, in solution a chemical equilibrium w ...
ic buffer with a useful buffering range of 6.1-7.5. The pioneering publication by Good and his co-workers described the synthesis and physical properties of ACES buffer.
Applications
ACES had been used to develop buffers for both
agarose
Agarose is a heteropolysaccharide, generally extracted from certain red seaweed. It is a linear polymer made up of the repeating unit of agarobiose, which is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose. Agarose is ...
and
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
ACES use in
isoelectric focusing
Isoelectric focusing (IEF), also known as electrofocusing, is a technique for separating different molecules by differences in their isoelectric point (pI). It is a type of zone electrophoresis usually performed on proteins in a gel that takes ...
of
proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respondi ...
has also been documented. Use of ACES has been published in a protocol for the analysis of bacterial
autolysins in a discontinuous
SDS-PAGE
SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) is a discontinuous electrophoretic system developed by Ulrich K. Laemmli which is commonly used as a method to separate proteins with molecular masses between 5 and 250 kDa. ...
system. Potential inhibition of ACES and other
Good buffers has been investigated in γ-aminobutyric acid receptor binding to rat brain synaptic membranes.
[Tunnicliff, G., and Smith, J.A., "Competitive inhibition of γ-aminobutyric acid receptor binding by N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ε-ethanesulfonic acid and related buffer." "J. Neurochem.", 36(3):1122-1126.]
References
Buffer solutions