The fatty acids of Yersinia enterocolitica were investigated by Abbas and Card. In their report, they stated that the major fatty acids were C16:0, C16:1, C17:0 and C18: 1 and branched or cyclopropane side-chain fatty acids could not be detected. We, however, found a moderate amount of cyclopropane side-chain fatty acid. We could determine that this fatty acid was cis-9, 10-methylene hexadecanoic acid by gas-liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, silvernitrate-treated TLC and PtO2 catalyzing hydrogenation method.Y. enterocolitica is one of the enteric bacteria, which grows in a broad range of temperature, 4-45 C. It is well known that such bacteria maintain the fluidity and stability of their membrane by changing the lipid composition following the change in growth temperature.From this point of view, we have analyzed the lipids of Y. enterocolitica.Abbas and Card, using Y. enterocolitica TN559582 strain, analyzed splendidly the fatty acid change following the change in growth temperature and found that unsaturated fatty acids increased relatively when the growth temperature decreased and saturated fatty acids increased relatively when the temperature increased (1).In their report, they stated that the major fatty acids were C16:0, C16: 1, C17:0 and C18:1, and branched or cyclopropane side-chain fatty acids could not be detected. We, however, found a moderate amount of cyclopropane side-chain fatty acids through our investigation.Y. enterocolitica Ye3827 (presented from Prof. Misao Tsubokura, Dept. of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University) was cultured by shaking in heart-infusion broth at 25 C, the optimum-growth temperature. The cells were harvested at the late log phase and washed in cold 0.85% saline. Membrane fraction was obtained by ultracentrifugation after the cells were broken up with French press. The lipids were extracted with chloroform-methanol (2: 1, v/v) and purified by Folch's method (3). Phospholipid composition was analyzed by two-dimensional chromatography on Kieselgel 60G plate (4). The solvent system used was chloroform-methanol-water (65: 25: 4, v/v/v) in the first direction and chloroform-77