Passage of a membrane protein through the walls of toluene-treated Bacillus megaterium cells.

Based on autoradiographic and microscopic evidence, it seems likely that a membrane protein essential for peptidoglycan synthesis can be extracted from uhlysed toluene-treated Bacillus megaterium cells. Furthermore, this protein can be added back to the membrane through the wall to reconstitute peptidoglycan synthesis. Autoradiograms also show that peptidoglycan is synthesized from externally added nucleotide precursors over the entire length of the toluene-treated bacterial. The amounts of peptidoglycan made is to small to be visible by thin section electron microscopy.