What is added to the resuspended bacterial pellet to initiate the digestion process?

The addition of lysozyme to the resuspended bacterial pellet is essential for initiating the digestion process because lysozyme is an enzyme that breaks down the cell wall of bacteria. In the context of green fluorescent protein (GFP) purification, the bacterial cells that express GFP need to be lysed to release the protein.

When lysozyme is introduced, it hydrolyzes the glycosidic bonds in the peptidoglycan layer of bacterial cell walls, leading to cell lysis. This step is crucial as it allows for the subsequent release and purification of GFP from the cytoplasm of the bacteria. Other options, while they may have their own uses in biochemical processes, do not serve the specific purpose of breaking down bacterial cell walls to extract intracellular proteins like lysozyme does.