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Temperature Control of Phospholipid Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli

¹ James Bryant Conant Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

ABSTRACT

The higher the growth temperature of Escherichia coli cultures the greater is the proportion of saturated fatty acids in the bacterial phospholipids. When fatty acids are exogenously supplied to E. coli, higher growth temperatures will likewise increase the relative incorporation of saturated fatty acids into phospholipids. One of the steps in the utilization of fatty acids for phospholipid biosynthesis is, therefore, temperature-controlled. The temperature effect observed in vivo with mixtures of ³H-oleate and ¹⁴C-palmitate is demonstrable in vitro by using mixtures of the coenzyme A derivative of these fatty acids for the acylation of -glycerol phosphate to lysophosphatidic and phosphatidic acids. In E. coli extracts, the relative rates of transacylation of palmityl and oleyl coenzyme A vary as a function of incubation temperature in a manner which mimics the temperature control observed in vivo. The phosphatidic acid synthesized in vitro shows a striking enrichment of oleate at the ß position analogous to the positional specificity observed in phospholipids synthesized in vivo.

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