Biogenesis and Function of Peroxisomes and Glycosomes Peroxisomes of higher eukaryotes, glycosomes of kinetoplastids, & glyoxysomes of plants are related microbody organelles that perform differing metabolic functions tailored to their cellular environments. The close evolutionary relationship of these organelles is most clearly evidenced by the conservation of proteins involved in matrix protein import and biogenesis.
glycosome can be viewed as an offshoot of the peroxisomal lineage with additional metabolic functions, specifically glycolysi
Peroxisomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae To isolate peroxisomes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae of a quality sufficient for in vitro import studies, we
optimized the conditions for cell growth and for cell fractionation. Stability of the isolated peroxisomes was
monitored by catalase latency and sedimentability of marker enzymes.
Purification of Peroxisomes in a Self-Generated Gradient Peroxisomes can be purified in self-generated iodixanol gradients in high yield (80-90%) with no detectable contamination from any other organelle. In iodixanol peroxisomes are the densest of the major subcellular organelles (ρ = 1.18-1.20 g/ml) present in the light mitochondrial fraction from
mammalian tissues and cells.
Purification of Peroxisomes using a Density Barrier in a Swinging-Bucket Rotor Peroxisomes can be purified in iodixanol gradients in high yield (80-90%) with no detectable contamination from any other organelle. This is a property unique to iodixanol because the
densities of other organelles, particularly that of mitochondria (approx ρ = 1.14 g/ml) and endoplasmic reticulum (approx ρ = 1.13 g/ml) are much lower than that of peroxisomes (approx ρ = 1.18 g/ml).
