Isolation of Arabidopsis Thylakoid Membranes and Their Use for In Vitro Protein Insertion or Transport Assays

This chapter focuses on the techniques of chloroplast isolation; their fractionation into envelopes, stroma, and thylakoids; and their further use for in vitro protein transport assays. In addition to the isolation of thylakoids, this chapter also describes the experimental steps of both protein translocation across the thylakoid membrane and protein integration into the membrane. Protein translocation and integration can be analysed by the radioactive labelling of substrate proteins using an in vitro transcription and translation system. The translocated or integrated proteins can then be detected by autoradiography. Our protocol allows the analysis of these transport systems in wild-type Arabidopsis or mutants that lack or overexpress soluble or membrane transport factors that could be of potential interest.