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Fatty acid composition of bacterial membrane and wall lipids

1966; Elsevier BV; Volume: 116; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0005-2760(66)90093-2

1879-145X

K.Y. Cho, M.R.J. Salton,

Metabolism and Genetic Disorders

A survey has been made of the fatty acid composition of the lipids extracted from isolated membranes of 5 Gram-positive bacteria and the "wall" or "envelope" fractions of 16 Gram-negative organisms. The lipids of the membranes of the aerobic Gram-positive species contained a high proportion of C15 branched-chain fatty acid. The thermophilic organism, Bacillus stearothermophilus, contained a substantial amount of both C15 and C17 branched-chain fatty acids in its membrane lipid. Lipid extracted from "walls" or "envelopes" of the Gram-negative bacteria was composed mainly of palmitic, palmitoleic and oleic acids. Cyclopropane acids were detected in "wall" lipid of some of the Gram-negatives and several unidentified methyl esters (possibly of the cyclopropane type) were also found. Only traces of fatty acids were detected in the lipid extracted from the envelopes of the halophile, Halobacterium halobium.