Isolation and characterization of the outer membrane proteins of Serratia marcescens W225

The study addressed the general problem of fractionating cell envelopes in order to isolate the outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria. Whereas the cells are normally transformed into spheroplasts prior to disintegration and membrane separation, Serratia marcescens was found to be resistant to spheroplast formation using the procedures available, which were originally developed for Escherichia coli. An efficient technique for spheroplasting S. marcescens was therefore developed; this comprised combining osmotic shock and lysozyme-EDTA treatment of sucrose-conditioned cells. Spheroplasting efficiency and the amount of outer membrane protein recovered were highly dependent on the spheroplasting technique used. Separation of the outer and inner membranes was performed by two methods, isopyenic centrifugation and selective detergent solubilization with Sarkosyl. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and the analysis of specific inner membrane marker enzymes revealed that the protein obtained by detergent solubilization was much purer than that obtained by isopycnic centrifugation. The outer membrane isolated accounted for 60% of the envelope proteins and had a buoyant density of 1.2502 g/cm3. The protein profile of the outer membrane determined by SDS-PAGE resolved into 12 distinct protein bands, 3 of which represented major proteins.