Menaquinone mixtures of microbial origin were separated according to the chain length and the degree of hydrogenation of the polyisoprenyl side‐chain by reversephase partition high performance liquid chromatography. Menaquinones can be measured easily and sensitively by the chromatographic system described here.

In order to develop a new method for determination of the G+C content of a DNA, preparations from 26 bacterial strains and salmon sperm were digested to form 5'-deoxyribonucleotide-monophosphates (dNMP) with nuclease PI and subjected to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Chromatograms indicated excellent separation of the components, and the data analysis suggested sufficient reproducibility and reasonable A/T and G/C ratios over a wide range (39 to 72mol%) of G+C values.

Facultatively chemolithotrophic thiobacilli, Thiobacillus perometabolis THI 022, Thiobacillus sp. A2, Thiobacillus novellus, Thiobacillus organoparus and Thiobacillus acidophilus, had ubiquinones with 10 isoprene units (Q-10) (group I). These species also had [octadecenoic acid (18 : 1) + cyclopropane acid of CI9 (19, , , )] as major non-hydroxylated fatty acids. The organisms, except T. novellus, contained 3-hydroxydecanoic acid (3-OH 10 : 0) or 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid (3-OH 14 : 0) as hydroxy fatty acids. DNA base compositions of these species were 63 to 68 mol% G + C. Other facultatively chemolithotrophic thiobacilli, including T. perometabolis THI 023, Thiobacillus delicatus and Thiobacillus intermedius with or without [ 18 : 1 + 19, , , ] as major non-hydroxylated fatty acids. The species of group I11 contained 3-OH 12:O and some had 3-OH 10:0 when grown at neutral pH and 3-OH 14 :O in acidophilic conditions. DNA base compositions of these organisms ranged from 5 1 to 64 mol% G + C. Chemotaxonomic characteristics would seem to be useful for the identification and the classification of thiobacilli.

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