Arabidopsis Organelle Isolation and Characterization

The subcellular energy organelles (chloroplast, mitochondria, and peroxisome) in plants are responsible for major metabolic processes including photosynthesis, photorespiration, oxidative phosphorylation, β-oxidation, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Arabidopsis thaliana provides a considerable challenge to organellar researchers that have traditionally focused their methods on the use of larger plants and storage organs from which organelles are relatively easy to isolate. In contrast, the small size and lack of abundant heterotrophic organs in Arabidopsis thaliana means that many traditional techniques have required significant modification to yield enough isolated organelles for experimentation. However, these challenges are balanced by the advantages of working in an organism that has such a wide array of publically available genetic resources. Here we present methods for the isolation of chloroplasts, mitochondria and peroxisomes from Arabidopsis thaliana plants and heterotrophic cell cultures as well as a number of commonly used assays to assess their functional integrity and purity.