One-step chromatography method for efficient separation and purification of R-phycoerythrin from Polysiphonia urceolata

Phycoerythrins have been widely used in food, cosmetics, immunodiagnostics and analytical reagents. An efficient one-step chromatography method for purification of R-phycoerythrins from Polysiphonia urceolata was described in this paper. Pure R-phycoerythrin was obtained with an absorbance ratio A565/A280 of 5.6 and a high recovery yield of 67.33% using a DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow chromatography with a gradient elution of pH, alternative to common gradient elution of ionic strength. The absorption spectrum of R-phycoerythrin was characterized with three absorbance maxima at 565, 539 and 498 nm, respectively and the fluorescence emission spectrum at room temperature was measured to be 580 nm. The results of native-PAGE, and SDS-PAGE showed no contamination by other proteins in the phycoerythrin solution, which suggests an efficient method for the separation and purification of R-phycoerythrins from Polysiphonia urceolata.