J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 263, Issue 21, 10289-10294, Jul, 1988
Purification and characterization of ferritins from maize, pea, and soya bean seeds. Distribution in various pea organs
JP Laulhere, AM Lescure and JF Briat
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UA 1178, Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
Ferritins from maize, pea, and soya bean seeds were purified. They contain
two polypeptides of 28 and 26.5 kDa. The molecular weight of native pea
seed ferritin has been estimated to be 540,000. Pea and maize seed
ferritins were compared by reverse phase high performance liquid
chromatography, amino acid composition, and two-dimensional gel
electrophoresis. They are very similar, although four isoforms of the
28-kDa polypeptide from the pea were observed in contrast to a unique
polypeptide in maize. No isoforms of the 26.5-kDa polypeptide were
detected. Rabbit antibodies were produced in response to pea seed ferritin.
It was shown by Western blot analysis that ferritins of the three plants
analyzed share immunological determinants. However, horse spleen ferritin
was not recognized by the phytoferritin antibodies. Antibodies were also
used to demonstrate that ferritins are not uniformly distributed in
different pea organs from 30-day-old iron- unloaded plants. The protein was
more abundant in flowers than in fruits and roots, and was not detected in
leaves.