Purification of extrachloroplastic. beta. -amylase from leaves of starchless and wild type Arabidopsis

Amylase activity in crude leaf extracts from starchless mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana is 5 to 10 fold higher than in the wild type (WT) when plants are grown under a 12 h photoperiod. Visualized on native PAGE, the increased activity is attributed primarily to a previously characterized extrachloroplastic {beta}-(exo)amylase. The {beta}-amylases from phosoglucomutase deficient (starchless) and WT leaves were purified to homogeneity in two steps utilizing polyethylene glycol fractionation, and cyclohexaamylose affinity chromatography. The enzyme from both mutant and WT leaves had negligible activity toward either {beta}-limit dextrin or pullulan. The specific activities of both purified enzymes were similar indicating that the protein is over-expressed in the mutant. Preliminary antibody neutralization experiments suggest that the two {beta}-amylases are not different.