Separation of Particulate Phytochrome and Plasma Membranes of Maize Coleoptiles by Density Gradient Centrifugation

Phytochrome, cross linked in situ to its receptor by glutaraldehydefixation, and radioactively-labelled membrane material, obtainedby lactoperoxidase-catalysed ¹²⁵I-treatment of maize coleoptilescould be separated from each other according to sedimentationvelocity and by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Bindingof iodine to membrane material in maize coleoptiles increasedseveral-fold on the addition of reaction-specific enzymes, i.e.lactoperoxidase and glucose oxidase. Mitochondria were considerednot labelled because mito-chondrial purification reduced ¹²⁵Iincorporation. Membrane material containing incorporated iodineappeared quite heterogenous and sedimented to an equilibriumdensity position close to, but slightly lighter than that ofthe mitochondria; participate phytochrome banded at a heavierposition. Results obtained therefore suggest that the receptorfor phytochrome may not be on the plasma membrane as envisagedin recent hypotheses.