Nucleic acids remaining within bacterial protein samples from Streptomyces lividans and Escherichia coli were found to interfere significantly with blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (BN-PAGE), a technique used frequently for analyzing bacterial protein complexes in proteomics studies. We have used ultracentrifugation and/or precipitation of cell lysates with streptomycin sulfate to eliminate nucleic acids from total and/or membrane protein samples. Nucleic acid-binding proteins were first enriched by precipitation with streptomycin sulfate, and contaminating nucleic acids were then eliminated by precipitation by adding polyethyleneimine. The performance of BN-PAGE was found to be dramatically improved by these sample preparation steps.