Phospholipid molecular species distribution of some medically important Candida species analysed by fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy

Abstract

M . A BD I , D . D R UC KE R , V . B O OT E, M . K OR A CH I A N D E . T H EA KE R . 1999. The aim of this study was to obtain detailed information on phospholipids (PL) of the medically important Candida species and to determine their possible chemotaxonomic significance. Lipids were extracted from 22 strains representing 8 Candida species and their PL molecular species distributions were determined by Fast Atom Bombardment Mass Spectroscopy (FAB MS) in negative ion mode. Fifteen major lower mass peaks (m/z 221 to 289) were attributable to the expected presence of carboxylate anions and 24 major higher mass peaks (m/z 557 to 837) were attributable to phospholipid anions. Major carboxylate peaks were of the following m/z and identities : 253, C16:1 ; 255, C16:0 ; 277, C18:3 ; 279, C18:2 ; 281, C18:1 ; and 283, C18:0. The most abundant peaks consistent with the presence of phospholipid molecular species anions include those of m/z 673, 743, 833, 834 and 836 tentatively identified as phosphatidic acid (PA) (34 : 1), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) (34 : 3), phosphtidylinositol (PI) (34 : 2) and two unknown molecular species. This profile is diagnostic for the genus Candida. Quantitative differences were observed between different Candida species. Thus, polar lipid molecular species distribution in Candida spp. has chemotaxonomic significance, especially so in the case of carboxylate anions.

Compared tolerance to osmotic stress in various microorganisms: Towards a survival prediction test

“…This stage may be very important because it could determine the observed differences in osmotic resistance of different microbial strains. Indeed, each tested strain differed from the others in its principal phospholipid: phosphatidylglycerol (PG) in L. plantarum (Linders et al, 1997); cardiolipin (CL) in L. bulgaricus (Fernandez Murga et al, 1999), phosphatidic acid (PA) in C. utilis (Abdi et al, 1999); phosphatidylcholine (PC) in S. cerevisiae (Van der Rest et al, 1995) and in B. japonicum (Tang and Hollingsworth, 1998); and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) in E. coli (Di Russo et al, 1999). So, it appears that whereas membrane dominant lipids of C. utilis and L. bulgaricus are different, their osmotolerance was close.…”

Probing cell chemistry with time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry: development and exploitation of instrumentation for studies of frozen‐hydrated biological material

“…It is known that phosphatidylcholine derivatives are a dominant constituent of the C. glabrata cell membrane. 24 The ion images of m/z 184 and 735 correspond to the polar headgroup fragment and molecular ion [MþH] þ of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, respectively. This demonstrates that localisation of native, relatively high mass, molecular species from a freeze-fractured cell is possible.…”

Characterization of polar lipids of oral isolates of Candida, Pichia and Saccharomyces by Fast Atom Bombardment Mass Spectrometry (FAB MS)

“…FAB MS has provided novel data on the distribution of individual phospholipid analogues and fatty acid anions in many taxonomic groups, including Candida spp. (Abdi and Drucker 1996; Abdi et al . 1999), Clostridium difficile (Drucker et al .…”

“…1988) and by FAB MS (Abdi and Drucker 1996). In C. albicans , the most intense FAB MS peaks attributable to carboxylic anions have been found to be C 18 : 1 > C 18 : 2 > C 16 : 0 > C 16 : 1 (Abdi and Drucker 1996), whereas Abdi et al . (1999) have reported C 18 : 1 > C 16 : 0 > C 18 : 2 > C 18 : 3 as major anions in medically‐important Candida spp.…”

“…1998), and can separate complex mixtures of those compounds. FAB MS has also been used to fingerprint polar lipids of yeasts (Abdi and Drucker 1996; Abdi et al . 1999) and moulds (Birch et al .…”