Competitive adsorption of proteins from total hen egg yolk during emulsification

In this article, the competitive adsorption of egg yolk proteins at oil/water interfaces during emulsification is studied. By using two-dimensional polyacrylamide electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, it was possible to characterize and identify adsorbing and non-adsorbing protein species. The egg yolk contains proteins with a wide range of molecular weights and pI. Lipoproteins adsorbed selectively throughout the pH range investigated. It is suggested that selectivity is determined by the average hydrophobic and hydrophilic domain lengths in the protein sequences where long average hydrophobic domain lengths result in high affinity for the interface and thus strong preferential adsorption.