THE ISOLATION OF PROTOPLASTS FROM BACILLUS MEGATERIUM BY CONTROLLED TREATMENT WITH LYSOZYME

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Abstract
Cells of B. megaterium. treated with lysozyme in dilute phosphate buffer, show a far-reaching lysis, and only 2 microscopically detectable structural elements remain spherical, empty "ghosts" and granules. The granules probably consist of lipid material. Lysozyme treatment in sucrose solns. of appropriate concns. depolymerizes the bacterial cell wall, but the rest of the cell remains as an intact structural unit, the protoplast. These protoplasts can be lysed by dilution of the solute, giving rise to the ghosts and granules obtained by lysis in phosphate buffer alone. Flagella are still attached to the protoplasts, an observation which confirms the protoplasmic origin of these organelles.