FIG. 1.

Purification of ASCOM. (A) The chromatography scheme for the purification of ASCOM from nuclear extract (HeLa NE) is shown. Numbers and parentheses indicate KCl molarity and pools, respectively. αASC-2, anti-ASC-2. (B) Mass spectrometric identification of polypeptides. Anti-ASC-2 antibody column eluates were run on an SDS-12% PAGE gel, silver stained, and analyzed by MALDI-TOF, with gene products and molecular masses (in parentheses) shown on the right. The masses of the marker proteins (M) are shown on the left, and asterisks indicate nonspecific bands. Antibody raised against AC22148, a protein of unknown function, revealed that it is a nonspecific contaminant. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analyses failed to unravel the identity of a protein of approximately 116 kDa (indicated Unknown).