COMPARISON OF FATTY-ACIDS OF MARINE FUNGI USING MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS

Ten obligate marine fungi have as their principal fatty acids 16:0, 18:0, 18:1n9 and 18:2n6. The fatty acids ranged from 14 to 22 carbons, completely dominated by those with even numbers of carbons. The amount of unsaturated fatty acids varied between 35% and 80%. Each isolate contained small amounts of the acids 18:3n3 and 20:4n6. Branched, hydroxy- or cyclic fatty acids were not detected. Multivariate statistical, i.e. principal component analysis, showed that all ten strains could be distinguished on the basis of their fatty acid composition. These results indicate that the marine fungi do not have an unusual fatty acid composition and suggest that chemometric, multivariate analysis might be employed to confirm taxonomic relationships among these organisms.