Abstract: Eucaryotic cells contain a complex network of filamentous proteins collectively called the cytoskeleton, which participates in many cellular functions, including organelle motility and information transfer. Tubulins are one of the main
components of the cell cytoskeleton. Tubulins of high purity were prepared from day lily pollen grains, and were biochemically and biophysically characterized in this study. The molecular weight ofα-andβ- tubulin from day lily pollen is about 56 kD and 58 kD on SDS-PAGE, respectively. The purity is 93.7% by scanning analysis. The tubulin has a sedimentation coefficient of 6.2S and an isoelectric point of about 5.35. The maximum ultraviolet absorption is 280.8 nm. Fluorescence emission wave length of day lily tubulin is 338 nm by excitation at 282 nm. Circular dichroism (CD) spectrum analysis showed that the percentage ofα-helix, β-sheet and random coil of day lily tubulin is 27.24%, 24.48% and 48.28%, respectively, indicating a typical feature of globulin.

Key words: Tubulin