Occidental College




Plasmid Construction and the Purification of Arabidopsis Plantancyanin and Lily Chemocyanin in a Prokaryotic System
Suhyen Lee
Project Advisor: Aram M. Nersissian

     Chemocyanin is a chemotropic compound found in lily stigma that plays one of important factors in pollination. This basic copper binding protein, chemocyanin, functions in inducing pollen tube chemotropism. Also, its sequence shows similarity to plantacyanin, another copper binding protein of cell wall with unknown function. In order to purify proteins of lily chemocyain and Arabidopsis plantacyanin L1, L30, P1, and P30 were contructed using PCR. L1, and L30 contains lily chemocyanin domain and P1 and P30 contains plantacyanin domain. L1 and P1 also contain signal peptides in addition to arabidopsis and plantacyanin domains while L30 and P32 do not contain that contains signal peptides. However, all four DNA contain NdeI and BamHI restriction sites. After transforming these to expression vector BL21, protein of P1 was purified using ultrafiltraion and protein of L30 was purified using sonication, 8M urea treatment, and ultrafiltration. It was found that the chemocyanin cannot be purified from intermembrane cytosol, however, plantacyanin can be purified. 

Support provided by: Research Corporation Grant

Undergraduate Research Center 1600 Campus Rd. Los Angeles, CA. 90041 (323) 259-1414