P. Udagamarandeniya et R. Savidge, ELECTROPHORETIC ANALYSIS OF CONIFERYL ALCOHOL OXIDASE AND RELATED LACCASES, Electrophoresis, 15(8-9), 1994, pp. 1072-1077
Gradient gel electrophoretic methods enabled a distinction to be made
between coniferyl alcohol oxidase (CAO) of lignifying cell walls and a
pI similar to 9 pine ''laccase'' recently implicated in lignification
(Science 1993 260, 672). Following treatment of a partially purified
protein mixture from developing xylem of Pinus strobus with 2-[N-morph
oline]ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer, isoelectric focusing and sodiu
m dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated that C
AO had been selectively precipitated by MES and thereby purified to el
ectrophoretic homogeneity. Purified CAO was determined to be a cell-wa
ll-bound glycoprotein (38% glycan), M(r) 107 500, pI 7.6, pH and tempe
rature optima 6.3 and 30 degrees C, respectively. By graphite-furnace
atomic-absorption analysis, CAO contained one copper atom per protein
molecule. Proteins obtained from lignifying cambial derivatives of con
ifers (family Pinaceae) and from Rhus typhina bark were compared with
CAO and the pI similar to 9 pine ''laccase'' following electrophoresis
and Western blotting. For Abies balsamea, Larix laricina, Picea ruben
s, Pinus banksiana, Pinus taeda, and R. typhina, the isoelectric point
s of oxidatively active bands were identical to those of purified CAO.
In addition, for all species only the pI 7.6 band was immunoreactive
with antibodies against periodate-deglycosylated CAO.