The wax esters of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strains NCIB 8250 and NCIB 10487 harvested at stationary phase from N-limited batch cultures were extracted and shown to consist of C14 to C 8 saturated and mono-unsaturated alkan-1-01s randomly esterified with C to C1 8 saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. The mono-unsaturated components contained a cis A9 double bond. Wax ester content of strain NCIB 8250 increased under conditions of low growth rate in N-limited continuous culture with carbon and energy source in excess. The high content of wax ester in N-limited cultures of strain NCIB 8250 was lowered by incubation in the absence of a carbon and energy source and the wax ester was converted to water-soluble materials and C 0 2. It is proposed that in A. calcoaceticus NCIB 8250 the endogenous wax ester present in N-limited cells can serve as an energy reserve. All 19 strains of A. calcoaceticus tested contained some wax ester and as 16 of these strains had increased wax ester contents when harvested from stationary phase N-limited batch cultures, it appears that wax esters are widespread, but not universal, energy storage components in the genus Acinetobacter.

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Abstract. The temperate sea anemone Anemonia viridis (Forsk/il) contained about 11% lipid on a dry weight basis when maintained at light levels of about 10 #E m-2 s-1 and a temperature of 10 °C. Aposymbiotic forms of the anemone had similar lipid levels. These values are very low compared with tropical symbiotic Anthozoa in which lipid levels constitute up to 50% of dry weight. In symbiotic A. viridis, < 6% of total lipid consisted of the storage lipids, wax esters and triglycerides. Most of the triglyceride was stored in the animal tissues rather than the zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae contained only small amounts of wax esters. An analysis was made of the wax ester, triglyceride and fatty acid composition of symbiotic anemones, isolated zooxanthellae and aposymbiotic anemones. Wax ester composition was similar in symbiotic and aposymbiotic forms. However, triglyceride composition differed. In particular trimyristin (C42) was found only within the symbiotic association. Fatty acids showed a high degree of unsaturation, and acids with both even and odd numbers of carbon atoms were found. The most abundant fatty acid was 16:0 in all samples, except for the total lipids from zooxanthellae in which the major fatty acid was trans-18:l.

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