Isolation and preparation of chloroplasts from Arabidopsis thaliana plants.

A major area of research in the postgenomic era has been the proteomic analysis of various subcellular and suborganellar compartments. The success of these studies is to a large extent dependent upon efficient protocols for the preparation of highly pure organelles or suborganellar components. Here we describe a simple, rapid, and low-cost method for isolating a high yield of Arabidopsis chloroplasts.

The import of phosphoenolpyruvate by plastids from developing embryos of oilseed rape, Brassica napus (L.), and its potential as a substrate for fatty acid synthesis.

The plastidial phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)/phosphate translocator (PPT) is expressed in the developing embryos of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.). PEP can be imported by plastids isolated from embryos and used for fatty acid synthesis at rates that are sufficient to account for one-third of the rate of fatty acid synthesis in vivo.

Retroelements, transposons and methylation status in the genome of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and the relationship to somaclonal variation.

We isolated and characterized different classes of transposable DNA elements in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plants grown from seed, and plants regenerated from tissue culture that show mantling, an abnormality leading to flower abortion. Using PCR assays, reverse transcriptase fragments belonging to LINE-like and gypsy-like retroelements and transposase fragments of En/Spm transposons were cloned. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of a major family of LINEs in oil palm, with other diverged copies.