Protein extraction from wool and a convenient procedure for the coated fibers

A convenient extraction procedure (called Shindai method) was applied for protein separation from sheep wool and wool yam. The extraction protein amount obtained by Shindai method was about 1.5 times more than that obtained by the conventional method. Obtained proteins are mainly composed of hard alpha-keratins and matrix proteins. No significant hydrolysis and no differences of the protein components between sheep wool and wool yam samples were observed. We found the presence of serine phosphorylation in alpha-keratins and matrix proteins, and that of threonine and tyrosine phosphorylation in alpha-keratins; such processed would indicate the presence of post-translational modifications in wool proteins. A novel procedure to preparae protein-coated fibers was developed. About 5 mg of protein was maximally bound to each g of the gauze (cotton cloth). Scanning electron microscopy shows that the surfaces of the fibers of the gauze are composed of filamentous structures of alpha-keratins with a diameter of 1 similar to 2 mum.