Cultural Characteristics and Fatty Acid Composition of Propionibacteria

Abstract

The cultural characteristics and cellular fatty acid composition of 40 strains representing 7 species of Propionibacterium and of 9 cultures of anaerobic corynebacteria were studied. The cultures were characterized by means of 23 separate cultural and biochemical tests. Cultures of the two genera differed consistently in only two reactions; the propionibacteria did not produce indole or liquefy gelatin, whereas the anaerobic corynebacteria were consistently positive with these tests. The fatty acids were extracted from whole cells and examined as methyl esters by gas-liquid chromatography. The most abundant acid in the seven Propionibacterium species was a C15-saturated branched-chain acid which was present in both the isoand anteiso-form. Based on a comparison of the relative abundance of these isomers (i-C15 and a-C15), the species were separated into two groups. P. freudenreichii and P. shermanii (group one) were similar and contained the a-C15 isomer as the predominant acid. The i-C15 isomer was the most abundant acid in the second group (P. arabinosum, P. jensenii, P. pentosaceum, P. thoenii, and P. zeae). The fatty acid profiles of the anaerobic corynebacteria were somewhat similar to those of the second group of propionibacteria, but were distinct from the profiles of P. freudenreichii and P. shermanii. The addition of branched-chain amino acids (L-leucine and Lisoleucine) to the growth medium increased the synthesis of the specific fatty acid(s) structurally related to the added amino acid. Members of the genus Propionibacterium are taxonomically very similar to anaerobic species of Corynebacterium. C. acnes, one of the most frequently encountered anaerobic species in clinical materials (5, 13), has been tentatively assigned to Propionibacterium by some workers on the basis of similar biochemical and morphological characteristics (3, 7). Others, however, have reported that C. acnes is sufficiently different in morphological and physiological features, and in deoxyribonucleic acid composition, to warrant its separation from the genus Propionibacterium (14, 16, 17). Previous work from this laboratory has shown that the relationship of C. acnes to the genus Propionibacterium extends beyond morphological and cultural similarities to include common cellular constituents such as fatty acids. We found that the fatty acid profiles of C. acnes were essentially identical to those of P. freudenreichii and P. shermanii, and that the three species were characterized by the presence of large amounts of a saturated C15 branched-chain fatty acid (10). Further study (9), however, indicated that C. acnes could be distinguished from P. freudenreichii and P. shermanii on the basis of the point of branching of the methyl group in the C15 fatty acid chain; C. acnes contained 13-methyltetradecanoic acid (i-C15) as the most abundant acid, whereas 12-methyltetradecanoic acid (a-C,5) was the most abundant acid in the two Propionibacterium species. Data on the cultural characteristics and fatty acid composition of additional cultur...

Production of conjugated linoleic acid by dairy starter cultures

“…shermanii. Furthermore, Moss et al (1969) classified the propionibacteria into two groups based on differences in fatty acid composition, i.e. P. freudenreichii ssp.…”

Volatile and Cellular Fatty Acids of Haemophilus vaginalis

“…Members of the genus Propionibacteriwn characteristically produce acetic and propionic acid from fermentable carbohydrate (5,11); butyric acid is the major fermentation product of Butyribacteriwn rettgeri (2,11) which is also referred to as Butyribacterium limoswn (6) and Eubacteriwn limoswn (11). Propionibacteriwn species also contain relatively large amounts of branched-chain cellular fatty acids (7). The present study of the volatile and cellular fatty acids of H. vaginalis was made to clarify the relationship of this organism to Propionibacteriwn and Butyribacteriwn.…”

Production of branched-chain aroma compounds byPropionibacterium freudenreichii: links with the biosynthesis of membrane fatty acids

“…The precursor for the biosynthesis of C15:0 and C17:0 in propionibacteria could be propionyl‐CoA, which is produced via the Wood Werkman cycle involved in the formation of propionic acid (Wood 1981). The presence of BCFAs in propionibacteria lipids had been early reported (Moss et al. 1969; Hofherr et al.…”

“…They consist of BCFAs derived either from the three BCAAs (valine, leucine, and isoleucine), as in Bacillus subtilis (Willecke and Pardee 1971), or from leucine and isoleucine only, as in S. xylosus (Beck et al. 2004) and propionibacteria (Moss et al. 1969; Hofherr et al.…”

“…2004, 2007). As P. freudenreichii possesses a high proportion of methyl‐branched chain fatty acids (FAs) in the membrane FAs (Moss et al. 1969; Hofherr et al.…”