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Synthesis of Saturated Long Chain Fatty Acids from Sodium Acetate-1-C¹⁴ by Mycoplasma¹

Departments of Bacteriology and Animal Diseases, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut

ABSTRACT

Three strains of Mycoplasma, M. laidlawii A and B, and Mycoplasma sp. A60549, were grown in broth containing sodium acetate-1-C¹⁴. The methyl esters of the phospholipid fatty acids of harvested radioactive cells were prepared and identified by comparison of their mobilities to known radioactive fatty acid methyl esters by use of a modified reversed-phase partition-thin layer chromatographic technique. No radioactive methyl oleate or methyl linoleate was detected. Compounds migrating as radioactive methyl myristate, stearate, palmitate, and, with less certainty, laurate and octanoate were detected. The qualitative findings for all three organisms appeared similar. M. laidlawii B synthesized a radioactive substance, presumably a saturated fatty acid detected as the methyl ester derivative, which migrated in a position intermediate to methyl myristate-1-C¹⁴ and methyl palmitate-1-C¹⁴. This work indicates that M. laidlawii A and B and Mycoplasma sp. A60549 are capable, in a complex medium containing fatty acids, of synthesizing saturated but not unsaturated fatty acids entirely or in part from acetate.

² Present address: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

¹ Scientific contribution no. 210 from the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Connecticut, Storrs.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• McElhaney, R. N., Tourtellotte, M. E. (1969). Mycoplasma Membrane Lipids: Variations in Fatty Acid Composition. Science 164: 433-434 [Abstract]  
• Rodwell, A. (1968). Fatty-Acid Composition of Mycoplasma Lipids: Biomembrane with Only One Fatty Acid. Science 160: 1350-1351 [Abstract]