Simultaneous isolation of root and leaf mitochondria from Arabidopsis

Abstract

In all aerobic organisms mitochondria generate ATP via oxidative phosphorylation. For bulky tissues such as potato tubers and cauliflower and for larger crop plants such as tobacco, pea, soybean or etiolated seedlings it is possible to get a good yield of mitochondria. However, for tiny model plants like Arabidopsis it is very difficult to get sufficient quantities of mitochondria for various studies. Moreover, for comparative studies it is very important to isolate leaf and root mitochondria. Due to the lack of chlorophyll, root mitochondria isolation is often an easy task. Leaf mitochondria isolation has the advantage that higher amounts of tissues can be obtained from the plants in comparison to root material, but chlorophyll contamination can be a problem. This chapter describes how to isolate root mitochondria with sufficiently high yields, and how to obtain chlorophyll-free leaf mitochondria simultaneously.