The phosphocholine motif in membranes of Mycoplasma fermentans strains

Mycoplasma fermentans strains differ in the profile of choline-containing phosphoglycolipids (PGL) present in their cell membrane. MfGL-II [Zahringer et al. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 26262-76270] was found to be the major PGL in most strains tested. However, in the pulmonary isolates, M52 and M39 the major choline-containing PGLs were MfGL-1 [Matsuda et al. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 33123-33129] and MfEL. a unique choline-containing ether lipid recently identified by us [Wagner et al. (2000) fur. J. Biochem. 267, 6276 6286]. Both MfGL-I and MfEL were metabolically labeled by growing the cells with radioactive choline but only MfGL-I reacted with anti-phosphocholine antibodies. All tested strains fused with Molt-3 cells at almost the same rate and to about the same extent and in all the strains membrane proteins that reacted with anti-phosphocholine antibodies were detected. indicating that some membrane proteins are decorated with phosphocholine moieties. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies.