ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FLAGELLA FROM TRICHOMONAS-VAGINALIS

As a first step in the biochemical and biomedical analyses of flagella from Trichomonas vaginalis the flagella were isolated, purified, and analyzed. The flagella were detached by mechanical shearing and a crud e flagellar preparation was obtained by low-speed differential centrif ugation. The crude flagellar preparation was subjected to further puri fication by discontinuous sucrose density-gradient centrifugation. Ele ctron micrographs (EM) of the purified flagella showed the typical 9 2 axonemal arrangement. The structural integrity and the flagellar me mbrane were not destroyed by the deflagellation method or the purifica tion scheme employed. The flagellar preparations were resolved by sodi um dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified pr eparation contained many flagellar enriched proteins ranging from 20 t o 120 kDa. Three major proteins of 65 kDa and a doublet of about 50-58 kDa were observed. The protein patterns and EM appearance of the frac tions were highly reproducible.