Separation of native allophycocyanin and R-phycocyanin from marine red macroalga Polysiphonia urceolata by the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis performed in novel buffer systems.

Three buffer systems of Imidazole-Acetic acid, HEPES-Imidazole/Bis-tris and Bis-tris-HEPES-MES were designed based on the principle of discontinuous polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) for the native PAGE which could be performed in pH 7.0 and 6.5 in order to analyze and prepare the minor components of allophycocyanin (AP) and R-phycocyanin (R-PC) from marine red macroalga Polysiphonia urceolata. These AP and R-PC phycobiliproteins are easily denatured in alkaline environments. The obtained results demonstrated that the PAGE modes performed in the buffer systems of HEPES-Imidazole/Bis-tris and Bis-tris-HEPES-MES gave the satisfactory resolution and separation of AP and R-PC proteins. The absorption and fluorescence spectra of the AP and R-PC proteins which were prepared by the established PAGE modes proved that they maintained natural spectroscopic characteristics. The established PAGE modes may also provide useful references and selections for some other proteins that are sensitive to alkaline environments or are not effectively separated by the classical PAGE modes performed normally in alkaline buffer systems.