Isolation and Characterization of Tonoplast from Chilling-Sensitive Etiolated Seedlings of Vigna radiata L.

Tonoplasts were isolated in a high purity from etiolated young seedlings of Vigna radiata L. (mung bean) utilizing a sucrose density gradient system. The excised hypocotyls were homogenized in a sorbitol-buffer system and the 3,600 to 156,000g pellets obtained after the differential centrifugations were suspended in a sorbitol medium and loaded on a linear sucrose density gradient. After centrifugation at 89,000g for 2 hours, tonoplasts were banded at the sample load/sucrose interface. Assessed by electron microscopy and marker enzymes, the purity and the quantity were found to be sufficient for biochemical and biophysical analyses. The tonoplasts were associated with NO(3) (-)-sensitive and vana-date-insensitive ATPase. The tonoplast ATPase was stimulated by proton ionophores such as carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-hydrazone and gramicidin D, suggesting a proton-pumping enzyme. In the presence of ATP and Mg(2+), a proton gradient was formed in the isolated tonoplast vesicles as assessed by fluorescence quenching of quinacrine. The tonoplasts contained several kinds of mannosylated or glycosylated glycoproteins and a major protein (65 kilodaltons) which was unique to the membranes.