The structures of the dihydrolipoamide acyltransferase (E2) components of the 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complexes from Escherichia coli were investigated by limited proteolysis. Trypsin and Staphylococcus aureus V8 proteinase were used to excise the three lipoyl domains from the E2p component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and the single lipoyl domain from the E2o component of the 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex. The principal sites of action of these enzymes on each E2 chain were determined by sequence analysis of the isolated lipoyl fragments and of the truncated E2p and E2o chains. Each of the numerous cleavage sites (12 in E2p, six in E2o) fell within similar segments of the E2 chains, namely stretches of polypeptide rich in alanine, proline and/or charged amino acids. These regions are clearly accessible to proteinases of Mr 24,000-28,000 and, on the basis of n.m.r. spectroscopy, some of them have previously been implicated in facilitating domain movements by virtue of their conformational flexibility. The limited proteolysis data suggest that E2p and E2o possess closer architectural similarities than would be predicted from inspection of their amino acid sequences. As a result of this work, an error was detected in the sequence of E2o inferred from the previously published sequence of the encoding gene, sucB. The relevant peptides from E2o were purified and sequenced by direct means; an amended sequence is presented.