A procedure for isolating vacuoles from leaves of the halophyte Suaeda maritima

Abstract. A method is described here for isolating protoplasts and vacuoles from leaves of the halophyte Suacda maritima. Integrity of the protoplasts and vacuoles was tested by staining and shown to be more than 75%, while use of biochemical markers, staining and light microscopy suggested a high degree of purity of the vacuoles. Phosphatase and NADH cytochrome- c -reductase were associated with vacuoles; phosphatase showed an eight-fold enrichment and NADH cytochrome- c -reductase a 3.5-fold enrichment relative to protoplasts. The vacuoles contained only 15% of the protein in protoplasts.