Protein Extraction and Lysis: Serves as a base buffer for gentle lysis of mammalian and Escherichia coli cells, providing physiological ionic strength and protease inhibition via EDTA.

Immunoprecipitation/Co-IP Washes: Used as a wash buffer to maintain near-physiological pH and salt during antibody–antigen complex isolation while minimizing metal-dependent protease activity.

Nuclease Inhibition in Nucleic Acid Preps: EDTA chelates Mg2+/Mn2+ to suppress DNase/RNase activity during DNA/RNA isolation and handling.

Protein Storage and Dilution: Provides a stable pH environment with 150 mM NaCl for maintaining protein solubility; EDTA protects against metal-catalyzed oxidation and proteolysis.

Membrane Protein Solubilization: Used as a buffering and ionic-strength base for adding detergents to extract membrane proteins while inhibiting metalloproteases.

Enzyme Inactivation/Quenching: EDTA effectively quenches metal-dependent enzymes (e.g., metalloproteases, nucleases) during sample preparation.

Cell Pellet Resuspension/Washing: Employed to resuspend or wash cell pellets with controlled osmolarity and pH; EDTA aids permeabilization of Gram-negative outer membranes.

General Biochemical Assays (metal-independent): Suitable as an assay buffer when metal ions are undesirable, maintaining stable pH near neutrality without interfering salts or Tris.