Full Length Research Paper

Sub-cellular distribution of two salt-induced peptides in roots of Oryza sativa L. var Nonabokra

S. M. Saqlan Naqvi¹*, S. Qasim Raza², M. Zeeshan Hyder², Cengiz Vali Ozalp², Hussyin Avni Oktem² and Meral Yucel²

¹Department of Biochemistry, PMAS- Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

²Biology Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara-06531, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: saqlan@uaar.edu.pk. Tel: +92(51) 906 22 46, +92(333) 518 72 53. Fax: +92(51) 484 56 23.

Accepted 23 April, 2009

   Abstract

Living systems respond to changing environment by changing gene expression. In addition to changes in the level of expression of existing proteins, some new proteins may be synthesized. Such proteins not only can serve as markers, but may also play important role in adjusting to that specific environment. Targeting of these proteins to specific location within or outside the cell may also yield important clues to their function. In such a pursuit, ten days old seedlings of a relatively salt tolerant rice variety grown on MS medium were treated with 2% sodium chloride for three days. Root were harvested, ground, and fractionated in to sub-cellular components. Microsomes were further fractionated into constituent membranes. Proteins from these fractions were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and/or two dimensional separations. Results show induction of two new polypeptides which were present in total protein extract and soluble fractions. All other fractions failed to reveal induction of any new peptide under experimental conditions used.

Key words: 2-D electrophoresis, fractionation, salt induced proteins, sub-cellular localization.