The Microelectrophoretic Behaviour of Plant Mitochondria compared with Rat Mitochondria

Abstract

‘Heavy’ mitochondrial preparations of bean, cauliflower, and rat liver have been found to give unimodal distribution for electrophoretic mobility against number of particles. The pH-mean mobility curves were similar in form and consistent with the mitochondrial surfaces being lipoproteins. de Duve (1959) separated ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ (lysosome-rich) mitochondrial fractions from rat liver. Microelectrophoretic studies on similar ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ mitochondrial preparations from rat liver have shown the latter to consist mostly of mitochondria with some faster-moving particles tentatively identified with de Duve's lysosomes. ‘Light’ mitochondrial preparations of bean showed no evidence of particles additional to mitochondria.