Separation of Thylakoid Protein Complexes with Two-dimensional Native-PAGE

The hierarchical composition and interactions of the labile thylakoid protein complexes can be assessed by sequential 2D-native gel-electrophoresis system. Mild non-ionic detergent digitonin is used to solubilize labile protein super-and megacomplexes, which are then separated with first-dimension blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (1D-BN-PAGE). The digitonin derived protein complexes are further solubilized with stronger detergent, β-DM, and subsequently separated on an orthogonal 2D-BN-PAGE to release smaller protein subcomplexes from the higher-order supercomplexes. Here we describe a detailed method for 2D-BN-PAGE analysis of thylakoid protein complexes from Arabidopsis thaliana.