Cytochemical localization of lipopolysaccharides during peptidoglycan degradation of Escherichia coli cells.

The cytochemical reaction of Thiery [J. P. Thiery, J. Microsc. (Paris) 6:987-1018, 1976] was applied to several Escherichia coli strains having different lipopolysaccharide molecular structures. The granular deposit obtained strongly suggested that part of the R core exposed on the outer membrane was responsible for the staining. As this procedure specifically stains the outer membrane, it was possible to demonstrate that, in E. coli K-12, changes in lipopolysaccharide distribution occurred during autolysis and lysozyme treatment.