Phospholipids of the Thiobacilli

Abstract

Phosphatidyl glycerol, disphosphatidyl glycerol, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine were found in all of the Thiobacillus species studied. T. thioparus possessed only these phospholipids. T. intermedius, T. neapolitanus, and T. thiooxidans contained phosphatidyl-N-monomethylethanolamine, and T. novellus lipids contained phosphatidyl-N-monomethylethanolamine, phosphatidyl-N-N-dimethylethanolamine, and phosphatidyl choline, in addition to the three phospholipids common to all of the thiobacilli. Methionine was found to act as a methyl donor in the biosynthesis of the methylated forms of phosphatidyl ethanolamine. Phosphatidyl inositol was not detected in any of the organisms. Changing the nutrient medium did not result in a qualitative change in the phospholipid spectrum of the cultures.

Rock weathering creates oases of life in a High Arctic desert

“…These lipids are commonly observed in cultures of acidophilic bacteria, e.g. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidiphilium (Barridge and Shively, 1968;Harms, 2007), and thus are consistent with an increase of these bacteria in the rusty strip. Ornithine lipids and bacteriohopanepolyols bacteriohopane-32,33,34,35-tetrol and 35-aminobacteriohopane-32,33,34-triol (aminotriol), which are exclusive bacterial markers (Lopez-Lara et al, 2003;Talbot et al, 2008), were also detected in low abundances throughout the transect, however, with highest amounts outside the rusty area.…”

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of nitrogen-containing intact polar lipids

“…We first tested our method on IPLs extracted from five bacterial cultures, one photoautotrophic bacterium ( Thiocapsa roseopersicina ), one obligate chemoautotrophic bacterium ( Thiobacillus denitrificans ) and three heterotrophic bacteria ( Pseudomonas sp., Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis , and Escherichia coli ; Table ), which have been reported to contain PE in their cell membranes . The presence of PE in all these cultures was confirmed by HPLC/MS analysis of the IPLs, and the derivatized headgroup of PE, N,O ‐pivaloylethanolamine, was detected by GC/MS in all cultures after application of our method.…”

New Facultative Thiobacillus and a Reevaluation of the Heterotrophic Potential of Thiobacillus novellus

“…Thiobacillus A2 also resembles T. novellus in its phospholipid composition (J. M. Shively, personal communication). Previous studies showed that the phospholipid composition of T. novellus was unlike other thiobacilli in that it contained appreciable amounts of phosphatidyl choline (5). Major differences between Thiobacillus A2 and T. novellus concern heterotrophic metabolism.…”