Figure 9.4. Isolation of rough ER When cells are disrupted, the ER fragments into small vesicles called microsomes. The microsomes derived from the rough ER (rough microsomes) are lined with ribosomes on their outer surface. Because ribosomes contain large amounts of RNA, the rough microsomes are denser than smooth microsomes and can be isolated by equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation.
When cells are disrupted, the ER breaks up into small vesicles called microsomes. Because the vesicles derived from the rough ER are covered with ribosomes, they can be separated from similar vesicles derived from the smooth ER or from other membranes (e.g., the plasma membrane). In particular, the large amount of RNA within ribosomes increases the density of the membrane vesicles to which they are attached, allowing purification of vesicles derived from the rough ER (rough microsomes) by equilibrium centrifugation in density gradients.
David Sabatini and Günter Blobel first proposed in 1971 that the signal for ribosome attachment to the ER was an amino acid sequence near the amino terminus of the growing polypeptide chain. This hypothesis was supported by the results of in vitro translation of mRNAs encoding secreted proteins, such as immunoglobulins. If an mRNA encoding a secreted protein was translated on free ribosomes in vitro, it was found that the protein produced was slightly larger than the normal secreted protein. If microsomes were added to the system, however, the in vitro-translated protein was incorporated into the microsomes and cleaved to the correct size. These experiments led to a more detailed formulation of the signal hypothesis, which proposed that an amino-terminal leader sequence targets the polypeptide chain to the microsomes and is then cleaved by a microsomal protease. Many subsequent findings have substantiated this model, including recombinant DNA experiments demonstrating that addition of a signal sequence to a normally nonsecreted protein is sufficient to direct the incorporation of the recombinant protein into the rough ER.