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The plasma membrane of Listeria monocytogenes strain 42 was prepared by osmotic lysis of protoplasts with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) buffer, pH 8.2, containing MgCl(2) and glucose, followed by washing with NaCl and MgCl(2) in Tris buffer. Electron microscopy showed that the preparation was not contaminated with cytoplasmic material. The membrane preparation was composed of 55 to 60% protein, 1.5% ribonucleic acid, 0.1% deoxyribonucleic acid, 1.3 to 2.3% carbohydrate, 0.17 to 0.38% amino sugar, 0.2 to 0.4% rhamnose, 3.5 to 4.0% phosphorus, 10.5 to 12.0% nitrogen, and 30 to 35% lipid. Amino acid composition of the washed membrane showed some variation from that of the whole cells. Sulfur-containing amino acids were not present in the membrane hydrolysate. The membrane carbohydrate contained glucose, galactose, ribose, and arabinose. The membrane lipid was 80 to 85% phospholipid and 15 to 20% neutral lipid. The lipid contained 2.3 to 3.0% phosphorus, 2.5 to 3.0% carbohydrate, and a very small amount of nitrogen (0.2 to 0.3%). The phospholipid was of the phosphatidyl glycerol type. Electron micrographs of the washed membrane showed three layers. The outer and inner layers varied in thickness from 25 to 37 A and the middle layer from 20 to 25 A. The total thickness varied between 85 and 100 A. These preparations contained many vesicles which stained heavily with lead citrate. Some vesicles were also attached to the protoplast ghosts in the form of extrusions or intrusions, or both. Membrane preparations obtained by lysis of protoplasts in the absence of MgCl(2) were fragmented and contained less lipid (20 to 22%) and ribonucleic acid (0.3 to 0.5%) than preparations prepared with MgCl(2).

1-(14)C-Oleic acid, 2-(14)C-erucic acid and 2-(14)C-nervonic acid were administered to rats by tail-vein and the distribution of radioactivity in liver lipids was determined at intervals from 15 min to 6 hr after injection. High levels of activity were found after short time intervals which were mainly associated with triglycerides in the case of oleic acid and with free fatty acids in the case of erucic acid and nervonic acid. The activity in these lipids decreased with time and was later exceeded by that in more polar lipids. In rats given erucic acid or nervonic acid, sphingolipids were more highly labelled than glycerophosphatides. Nervonic acid showed little tendency to form a complex with serum albumin and erucic acid complexed less readily than palmitic acid.