Fatty Acid Composition of Thermophilic, Mesophilic, and Psychrophilic Clostridia

Abstract

The fatty acid composition of two thermophilic anaerobes was determined, and the results were compared with those from a mesophilic and a psychrophilic anaerobe. Notable differences were that the thermophiles contained a higher content of saturated straight- and branched-chain fatty acids, and, of the latter, iso C 15 was the predominant type. The mesophile and psychrophile were characterized by having a higher percentage of unsaturated fatty acids. An unidentified fatty acid, present in all of the organisms, was purified from the psychrophile. By physical and chemical analysis the structure of the unknown acid was resolved and found to be the unsaturated cyclopropane fatty acid, 12,13-methylene-9-tetradecenoic acid.

A comparison of thermal adaptation of membrane lipids in psychrophilic and thermophilic bacteria

“…the study of CIostridium spp. by Chan et aL [25]. Even this approach has its problems and in this example the thermophilic, but not the mesophilic and psychrophilic spp., wcrc found to contain branched-chain fatty acids.…”

Effect of restrictive temperature on cell wall synthesis in a temperature-sensitive mutant of Bacillus stearothermophilus

“…Since these organisms represent totally unrelated genera, it has at times been difficult to determine whether observed differences are due to growth temperature or simply to intergeneric variation. Recently, several studies comparing mesophilic and thermophilic species from the same genus have been made, thus eliminating at least part of the problem (4,8,17,19).…”

Thermal adaptation in yeast: obligate psychrophiles are obligate aerobes, and obligate thermophiles are facultative anaerobes

“…Obligate psychrophilic species of clostridria have been characterized, and these have been shown to be obligate anaerobes (18). Comparison of the fatty acid compositions of psychrophilic and thermophilic clostridia have further shown that the psychrophiles have a high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids (7). The differences between the eucaryotic and procaryotic systems may thus be related in the ability of the latter group to synthesize unsaturated fatty acids anaerobically (13), a property not shared by eucaryotic microorganisms.…”