Protein extraction for 2-DE from the lamina of Ecklonia kurome (laminariales): recalcitrant tissue containing high levels of viscous polysaccharides

Extraction of proteins from the tissues of laminarialean algae, i.e. kelp, is difficult due to high levels of nonprotein interfering compounds, mainly viscous polysaccharides. To establish proteomic analysis of kelp species, an ethanol/phenol extraction method was developed and compared to other popular methods. Proteins were extracted with phenol from crude protein powder, obtained by homogenizing the kelp tissues in ice-cold ethanol. The ethanol/phenol method produced high-quality proteins of the highest purity from the lamina of Ecklonia kurome, one of the Japanese dominant laminarialean algae. This method gave well-resolved 1-D SDS-PAGE or 2-DE images with low background and the highest number of bands or spots. In particular, proteins with neutral to basic pI's were efficiently extracted. Furthermore, 27 spots on the 2-DE gel were extensively identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a protocol for protein extraction from kelp tissues that gives satisfactory 2-D protein profiles. It is expected that the protocol can be applied to other algae tissues or other recalcitrant plant tissues containing high levels of nonprotein interfering compounds.     

Synthesis of monodisperse poly(chloromethylstyrene-co-divinylbenzene) beads and their application in separation of biopolymers

The monodisperse, porous poly(chloromethylstyrene-co-divinylbenzene) beads of 7.9 microm were prepared by a single-step swelling and polymerization method. The seed particles prepared by dispersion polymerization exhibited good absorption of the monomer phase. Based on this media, a weak cation-exchange (WCX) stationary phase for HPLC was synthesized by a new chemically modified method. The prepared resin has advantages of biopolymer separation, high column efficiency, low column backpressure, high protein mass recovery, and good resolution for proteins. The dynamic protein-loading capacity of the synthesized WCX packings was 18.2 mg/g. Five proteins were separated in 3.0 min using the synthesized WCX stationary phase. The experimental results show that the obtained WCX resin has very weak hydrophobicity. The WCX resin was also used for the rapid separation and purification of lysozyme from egg white in 5.0 min with only one step. The purity and specific bioactivity of the purified lysozyme were found to be more than 93% and 70 245 U/mg, respectively.