scholarly journals Visualizing the Integrity of Chloroplast Envelope by Rhodamine and Nile Red Staining

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinjie An ◽  
Xin Miao ◽  
Lulu Wang ◽  
Xu Li ◽  
Xiaomin Liu ◽  
...  

Chloroplasts are essential organelles in plant cells with many important functions. Chloroplasts isolated by Percoll density gradient centrifugation are widely used in the study of chloroplasts. The intactness of isolated chloroplasts is necessary for many of the experiments. In the past, those isolated chloroplasts were either simply believed to be intact or had to be analyzed by indirect biochemical methods. Here we show a new method to check the intactness of isolated chloroplasts by staining their envelope with fluorescent dyes, Rhodamine or Nile red, and then observing them with a fluorescence microscope. With this method, broken chloroplasts and intact chloroplasts can be distinguished easily and their integrity can be checked in a few minutes. Results of this method agreed well with those of biochemical methods. Moreover, we have also found that sometimes the middle layer chloroplasts from the Percoll gradient centrifugation could be mostly broken, which could cause mistakes in the experiment. With our method, this problem can be easily found. This chloroplast envelope staining method can be used in the preparation of isolated chloroplasts to ensure the intactness.

1986 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-NP ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. Chu ◽  
P. J. Hyatt

ABSTRACT Percoll density gradient centrifugation is a simple, inexpensive and convenient method to eliminate contaminating zona fasciculata (ZF) cells from unpurified rat adrenal capsular glomerulosa (ZG) cell preparations (with less than 0·1% ZF cells in the final cell preparation). Basal steroid (aldosterone and corticosterone) output by the purified (PG) cells was unchanged. These purified cells, although free from ZF contamination, were more highly responsive than expected to ACTH (3 nmol/l). When PG cells were further separated by Sephadex column filtration, the filtered PG cells exhibited the steroidogenic response of ZG cells purified by unit gravity sedimentation and Sephadex column filtration, i.e. reduced basal steroid output and an ACTH response reduced to that stimulated by K+ (8·4 mmol/l). Although the cells retained in the column resembled the filtered PG cells ultrastructurally, they showed unchanged basal steroid output and a high ACTH response with increased latepathway activity (the conversion of corticosterone to aldosterone). By combining Percoll density gradient centrifugation and Sephadex column filtration we have a method for the isolation and study of both the high-and low-response rat ZG cells which are free from ZF contamination. J. Endocr. (1986) 109, 351–358


1990 ◽  
Vol 259 (2) ◽  
pp. F338-F347 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. H. Lash ◽  
J. J. Tokarz

Suspensions of purified proximal tubular (PT) and distal tubular (DT) cells were isolated from rat kidney cortical cells by Percoll density-gradient centrifugation and were used to investigate susceptibility of these regions of the nephron to oxidative injury. Exposure to tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBH), menadione (MD), or H2O2 produced significantly greater cytotoxicity, as assessed by leakage of lactate dehydrogenase, in DT cells than in PT cells. The order of cytotoxic potency in both cell types was MD greater than tBH greater than H2O2. Preincubation of PT and DT cells with 5 mM glutathione (GSH) or 5 mM dithiothreitol delayed tBH-induced cytotoxicity, indicating a protective role of GSH. Addition of buthionine sulfoximine and acivicin with GSH, to inhibit GSH synthesis and degradation, eliminated the protective effect of GSH, indicating that protection by GSH in DT cells is not dependent on uptake of the intact tripeptide. Incubation of both PT and DT cells with tBH resulted in oxidation of GSH to glutathione disulfide. Activities of five detoxication enzymes were significantly higher in PT cells, indicating that a diminished ability to detoxify reactive metabolites may contribute to the higher intrinsic susceptibility of DT cells to oxidative injury.


1994 ◽  
Vol 304 (2) ◽  
pp. 617-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
J C Osypiw ◽  
R L Allen ◽  
D Billington

Freshly isolated viable rat hepatocytes were separated into five subpopulations on shallow discontinuous Percoll density gradients. The periportal marker enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALT), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) showed gradients of increasing activity from the subpopulation of least density (band 1, rho = 1.07 g/ml) to the subpopulation of greatest density (band 5, rho = 1.09 g/ml). The perivenous marker enzymes pyruvate kinase (PK) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) showed gradients of decreasing activity from band-1 cells to band-5 cells. Glutamine synthetase (GS), which is confined to the two or three cell layers around the hepatic venule, was almost entirely restricted to band-1 hepatocytes. Band-5: band-1 ratios of enzyme activity were as follows: ALT, 8.0; LDH, 2.1; MDH, 1.6; GDH, 0.7; PK, 0.2; GS, 0.01. Band-5:band-1 ratios for ALT, LDH, PK and GS were maintained after culture of subpopulations in identical conditions for up to 72 h, whereas the ratios for MDH and GDH decreased and increased respectively towards unity. Band-1 hepatocytes exhibited greater cytotoxicity than band-5 cells after incubation with carbon tetrachloride or paracetamol. These perivenous-selective toxins produced greater decreases in cell viability and greater release of ALT and LDH from band-1 hepatocytes than from band-5 hepatocytes. Conversely, band-5 hepatocytes were more susceptible than band-1 hepatocytes to the cytotoxic effects of 1-naphthylisothiocyanate and methotrexate (known periportal-selective toxins). It is concluded that band-5 hepatocytes are enriched in periportal cells, whereas band-1 hepatocytes are enriched in perivenous cells. Isolation of hepatocyte subpopulations by Percoll density-gradient centrifugation has the considerable advantage that periportal and perivenous cells can be obtained from the same liver.


1994 ◽  
Vol 266 (6) ◽  
pp. F868-F877 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Sabolic ◽  
D. Brown ◽  
J. M. Verbavatz ◽  
J. Kleinman

Adenosinetriphosphatase (ATPase) activity stimulated by K+ and inhibited by Sch-28080 (SCH), omeprazole (OME), and vanadate has been measured in microsomes from mammalian renal medulla and attributed to a kidney isoform of the H(+)-K(+)-ATPase. To determine whether the H(+)-K(+)-ATPase inhibitors could also inhibit the vacuolar (V)-type H(+)-adenosinetriphosphatase (H(+)-ATPase, i.e., H+ pump) in mammalian intracellular vesicles, we examined their effects on bafilomycin-sensitive acidification in renal cortical vesicles (CEV) and medullary endocytic vesicles (MEV). Rats were injected with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran, and labeled endosomes were enriched from kidney tissue homogenates by differential and Percoll density gradient centrifugation. In the CEV, the V-type H+ pump was inhibited 25% by SCH and 30% by OME (100 microM each). Whereas the inhibition by OME was concentration and time dependent, the inhibition by SCH was only concentration dependent. Inhibition by these compounds was similar in the presence of 50 mM K+ (in = out) and in the complete absence of K+, thus ruling out a significant involvement of H(+)-K(+)-ATPase-mediated acidification. Inhibition, however, was not observed with 10 microM SCH and OME. The sensitivity of the V-type H+ pump to 100 microM SCH and OME in CEV was confirmed by the comparable inhibitions of intravesicular acidification observed in acridine orange fluorescence quench studies and by inhibition of Pi liberation in an ATPase assay. We also found that the V-type H+ pump in isolated rat liver endosomes is sensitive to 100 microM SCH and OME to a similar degree. In the MEV, acidification was only weakly affected by 100 microM SCH and OME, thus suggesting that H(+)-ATPases in endosomes from cortical and medullary tubules are different, possibly due to a previously described selective expression of subunit isoforms. Our finding indicates the importance of using low concentrations (< 10 microM) of OME and SCH in studies of H(+)-K(+)-ATPase in nongastric tissues to avoid misinterpretation of the data due to nonspecific inhibition of V-type H(+)-ATPases.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (S1) ◽  
pp. 946-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toru Okuda ◽  
Mieko Yanagisawa ◽  
Fumihiro Fujimori ◽  
Yuri Nishizuka ◽  
Yuki Takehana ◽  
...  

A new isolation method of fungi was established by using the Percoll density gradient centrifugation. We found that the difference in the specific gravity allowed us to separate mixtures of fungal spores of Aspergillus, Fusarium, Listeromyces, Penicillium, and Trichoderma. When this technique was applied to soil samples, a wider variety of fungi were isolated compared with those obtained from an ordinary serial dilution method. For screening purposes, it is necessary to eliminate redundant strains from the strains initially isolated. For the efficient discrimination of strains, the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method was applied. The establishment of a standard method for RAPD enabled us to minimize the deviation of Rf values between gels to less than 0.03. Conversion of the Rf values to binary matrices provided a matrix data that could be analyzed statistically. Based on the RAPD, it was possible to select genetically distinct fungal strains within a species. Key words: fingerprinting, isolation method, microbial screening, PCR, Percoll density gradient, RAPD.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document