Identification of proteins from vacuoles of red algae

Vacuoles and lysosomes are single-membrane-bound organelles involved in diverse functions such as intracellular digestion and storage or secretion of metabolites. To understand their origin, evolution and fundamental features, the identification of proteins comprising these compartments in missing links would be invaluable. So, we isolated the vacuoles from Cyanidioschyzon merolae, which is considered to be one of the most primitive photosynthetic eukaryotes, and identified 46 proteins by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry. Keywords: peptide mass fingerprinting, MALDI-TOF one sample