Enzyme Content of Plant Microbodies as Affected by Experimental Procedures

The content of specific enzymes in microbodies isolated from tobacco Nicotiana rustica, L. leaves may vary according to the procedure followed during the isolation of the organelles. The type of homogenizing medium, its ionic components and the ratio of medium to tissue during homogenization, affect the over-all yield and relative distribution of each microbody enzyme in different ways. The type of density gradient and the initial acceleration of the centrifuge rotor affect also the enzyme content of sedimenting microbodies. These observations explain some of the conflicting results obtained on the determination of the intracellular location of several enzymes.