Fractionation of Rice Glutelin Polypeptides using Gel Filtration Chromatography

Preparative gel filtration chromatography using Sepharose CL‐6B was utilized to obtain working quantities of dissociated rice glutelin polypeptides. Rice flour samples were extracted and fractionated using dilute Tris buffer containing either 0.5% SDS, 6M urea or 8M urea. Gel filtration under each set of extraction conditions yielded fractions containing dissociated acidic and basic glutelin polypeptides, but acidic polypeptides were more effectively separated from basic polypeptides in urea than in SDS. The presence of glutelin polypeptides in higher molecular weight aggregates under each set of buffer conditions indicated that the dissociation of these components during extraction was not complete.