This method takes advantage of the relatively high cholesterol content of the plasma membrane, as compared to other cellular membranes. Digitonin is a ß-sterol binding detergent that selectively solubilizes the plasma membrane, leaving the ER- and nuclear membranes intact. Hence, sequential treatment with digitonin followed by a more lytic detergent, such as an NP-40/DOC cocktail, yields cytosolic- and membrane-bound polysome fractions, respectively (schematically illustrated in Fig. 1A ). The various steps of the sequential detergent extraction procedure have been validated by immunofluorescene microscopy, where it can be seen that disruption of the plasma membrane with digitonin results in the release of (depolymerized) tubulin, without effect on the ER, the actin cytoskeleton, or the intermediate filament network (Fig. 1 B ). Following addition of the ER lysis buffer, the ER fraction is recovered in a soluble fraction and the nuclei, actin cytoskeleton, and intermediate filament network remain (Fig. 1B ). Companion immunoblot analyses of marker protein distributions show that the cytosolic proteins GAPDH and tubulin are present in the cytosol fraction, as expected, and the ER-membrane proteins, TRAPα and ER-lumenal protein, GRP94 are present in the ER fraction (Fig. 2 A ). The NP-40 insoluble material consists primarily of nuclear and cytoskeletal elements, as evidenced by the marker proteins histone H3 and actin, respectively (Fig. 2 A ). Similarly, Northern blot analysis of the mRNA composition of the cytosol and membrane fractions show that the cytosol fraction is enriched for mRNAs encoding histone (H3F3A) and GAPDH, whereas the membrane fraction is enriched in mRNAs encoding ER resident proteins, such as GRP94 and calreticulin (Fig. 2 B ).
The method described below is for cells grown in monolayer. However, the protocol can be easily adapted for non-adherent cells by performing permeabilization, wash and lysis in suspension and pelleting cells at 3000 × g for 5 minutes between the different steps. The volumes of reagents mentioned in the following protocol are scaled to extract polysomes from 10 million cells.
The method described below is for cells grown in monolayer. However, the protocol can be easily adapted for non-adherent cells by performing permeabilization, wash and lysis in suspension and pelleting cells at 3000 × g for 5 minutes between the different steps. The volumes of reagents mentioned in the following protocol are scaled to extract polysomes from 10 million cells.