[Lipid composition of carboxydobacteria].

The composition of lipids was studied in three strains of carboxydobacteria, viz. Seliberia carboxydohydrogena Z-1062, Pseudomonas gazotropha Z-1156 and Comamonas compransoris Z-1155. The content of lipids extracted with an alcohol--chloroform mixture varied in these strains from 9 to 13.2%. The main classes were phospholipids (from 62.6 to 77.2% of the overall lipid content). The major phospholipids were phosphatidyl ethanolamine and phosphatidyl choline. Moreover, the strains Z-1062 and Z-1156 contained three unidentified phospholipids which constituted 40 and 20% of the total content respectively. The neutral lipids of the carboxydobacteria comprised diglycerides, triglycerides, free fatty acids, methyl esters of fatty acids and a number of compounds which were not identified. The fatty acids of the strains were represented by saturated, monoene and cyclopropanoic acids. The main acids were palmitic, palmitolenic, C17-cyclopropanoic, stearic and octadecenic acids. Polar lipids differed from neutral lipids in their fatty acid composition. The fatty acid composition of firmly bound lipids was characterized by a high degree of saturation, the absence of cyclopropanoic acids and the presence of two unidentified acids that were not found in free lipids; apparently, they belonged to hydroxy acids.