Abstract
A mutation in CRL of Arabidopsis thaliana causes a severe defect in plastid division. Besides the inhibition of plastid division, the mutation causes distortion of cell division planes and abnormality in cell differentiation (Plant J., 38, 448-459, 2004). Our previous data indicated that CRL protein localized in the outer envelope membrane of plastids. We also have shown that the crl mutants contained the cells without detectable plastids. In this study, we have attempted to identify a CRL protein complex in chloroplast envelope membrane. CRL protein was solubilized by 1% n-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DDM) or 1% digitonin. The DDM-solubilized CRL complex was subjected to 2D gel electrophoresis with blue-native PAGE and SDS-PAGE, and was blotted on a PVDF membrane. Detection of CRL protein by an anti-CRL polyclonal antibody revealed that CRL was included in a protein complex with apparent molecular mass of 640 kDa.
