Protein quantification in ecological studies: a literature review and empirical comparisons of standard methodologies

1. Protein quantification is a routine procedure in ecological studies despite the inherent limitations of well-acknowledged protein determination methods which have been largely overlooked by ecologists. Thus, we want to bridge this knowledge gap, in hopes of improving the way ecologists quantify proteins and interpret findings.

2. We surveyed the ecological literature to determine how and why ecologists quantify proteins. To determine whether different quantification methods produce comparable results across taxa, and between populations of a single species, we estimated the protein content of eight phylogenetically diverse taxa, and of desert isopods fed different diets, using various derived protocols of the ‘crude protein’, Bradford and BCA methods.

3. We found that ecologists use many protein quantification procedures, often without reporting the crucial information needed to evaluate and repeat their methods. Our empirical work demonstrated that the three quantification m...