Cell Components

This first volume in Modern Methods of Plant Analysis, New Series deals with cell components and organelles. In contrast to many other publications on cell fractionation, it begins with chapters on the cell wall, the structure that sets most plant cells apart from animal and bacterial cells and that made studies of plant cell components extremely difficult until the advent of protoplast formation by enzymatic breakdown of the cell wall. Perhaps the most significant breakthrough in plant cell fractionation, protoplast formation is dealt with in the third chapter, following a chapter on the use of "markers" in cell fractionation. All the major cell components and organelles are covered in turn, and the suitability of each method for analytical or preparative use is indicated. This volume provides an extremely useful foundation for later volumes in the series.

Contents: Cell-Wall-Isolation, General Growth Aspects / Cell-Wall Chemistry, Structure and Components / Protoplasts - for Compartmentation Studies / The Marker Concept in Cell Fractionation / Plasma Membranes / Vacuoles / Protein Bodies / Lipid Bodies / Chloroplasts as a Whole / Purification of Inner and Outer Chloroplast Envelope Membranes / The Major Protein of Chloroplast Stroma, Ribulosebisphosphate Carboxylase / The Chloroplast Thylakoid Membrane - Isolation, Subfractionation and Purification of its Supramolecular Complexes / The Isolation and Characterization of Nongreen Plastids / Mitochondria / Endoplasmic Reticulum / Polyribosomes / The Nucleus - Cytological Methods and Isolation for Biochemical Studies / Microtubules / Subject Index.