Microorganisms fatty acid composition

Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) Detection The unique fatty acid composition and variability of the relative abundances of these species among microorganisms from different genera have been summarized as early as half a century ago by O Leary (1962). Subsequent developments in increasing sensitivity of mass spectrometers obviated the need for analysis of these nonvolatile, highly abundant compounds for biodefense approaches. Laboratory protocols have been developed to optimize the esterification procedure to increase the yield and minimize the required reaction time. 

Since the beginning of microbiology, the identification of bacteria has been based on their phenotypic characters (Section 4.3.2). Besides by its morphology, which gives little information, a strain is identified essentially by the substrates and products of its metabolism. When more discriminating analytical methods appeared, the chemical composition of microorganisms (fatty acids and proteins. Section 4.3.8) also participated in their identification. 

Table 5 Fatty acid composition of some microorganisms...

Abel et al. (1963) have suggested that the fatty acid composition of a particular microorganism might be a useful tool to aid in the classification of the organism. While there is no doubt that there may be some merit to this idea, their study aptly points out the complications to such an approach. First, it is quite clear that a number of their tentative assignments of fatty acid structures are incorrect. For example, the presence of major amounts of cyclopropane fatty acids in E. coli reported by a number of workers (Dauchy and Asselineau, 1960 Kaneshiro and Marr, 1961) is completely overlooked. Branched-chain fatty acids in various species of Bacillus and Micrococcus are also ignored. These errors illustrate the fact that fatty acid identification by gas-liquid chromatography, without ancillary analysis by independent... 

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