Dissociation and reconstitution of membranes synthesizing the peptidoglycan of Escherichia coli. Lipid dependence of the synthetic enzymes.

The peptidoglycan synthetic enzymes can be dissociated with cholate and LiCl into components with mobilities on a gel filtration column in the same ranges as bovine serum albumin. The active enzymes can be separated further from the lipids necessary for synthesis by precipitation with ammonium sulfate. The needed lipids stable to hydrolysis with base. A protein needed for peptidoglycan polymerization can be separated from the other synthetic enzymes by hydroxylapatite chromatography.