2D-isolation of pure plasma and thylakoid membranes from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Aqueous polymer two-phase partitioning in combination with sucrose density centrifugation offered, for the first time, a 2D-separation method for the isolation of pure plasma and thylakoid membranes from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803 without any cross-contaminations. The purity of the membrane fractions was verified by immunoblot analysis using antibodies against membrane-specific marker proteins. As an initiation of a proteomics project, two prominent proteins, which were observed only in the plasma membrane (Slr1513, a hypothetical protein, and HofG, a general secretion pathway protein), or in the thylakoid membrane (PsaE, a photosystem I protein, and NdhH, a subunit of NADH dehydrogenase), were identified.