Tricine is a zwitterionic amino acid and is one of Good's buffering agents. Good first prepared tricine to buffer chloroplast reactions. Tricine is a commonly used electrophoresis buffer and is also used in resuspension of cell pellets. It has a lower negative charge than glycine, allowing it to migrate faster. In addition, its high ionic strength causes more ion movement and less protein movement. This allows for low molecular weight proteins to separate in lower percent acrylamide gels. Tricine has been documented in the separation of proteins in the range of 1 to 100 kDa by electrophoresis. The tricine buffer at 25 mmol/L is the most effective buffer for ATP assays using firefly luciferase. Tricine has also been found to be an effective scavenger of hydroxyl radicals in a study of radiation-induced membrane damage.
