Description
BackgroundStreptavidin is a tetrameric bacterial protein isolated from Streptomyces avidinii providing 4 high-affinity biotin binding sites. Streptavidin homo-tetramers have an extraordinarily high affinity for biotin. With a dissociation constant on the order of ≈10⁻¹⁴ mol/L, the binding of biotin to streptavidin is one of the strongest non-covalent interactions known in nature. Unlike egg-white avidin, which has a net positive charge at neutral pH and contains about 7% carbohydrate, streptavidin has almost no net charge at neutral pH, does not contain carbohydrate, and exhibits lower non-specific background. Streptavidin conjugates are widely used together with a conjugate of biotin for specific detection of a variety of proteins, protein motifs, nucleic acids and other molecules. This FITC-streptavidin conjugate was prepared by highly purified Streptavidin and free FITC was removed. Streptavidin (FITC) is a useful second-step reagent for the indirect immunofluorescent staining of cells in combination with biotinylated primary antibodies for flow cytometric analysis. Excitation at 488nm light leads to a fluorescence emission maximum of 520 nm.Recommended Usage：Every lot of Streptavidin-FITC is tested by flow cytometry using biotinylated primary antibodies. From this testing it is recommended that between 0.02 and 0.25 µg of streptavidin be used per 106 cells in a 100 µl staining volume