POLAR LIPIDS AND FATTY-ACIDS OF PSEUDOMONAS-CARYOPHYLLI, PSEUDOMONAS-GLADIOLI AND PSEUDOMONAS-PICKETTII

The polar lipids and their fatty acid components in Pseudomonas caryophylli, Pseudomonas gladioli and Pseudomonas pickettii have been identified. In addition to diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol (a trace only for P. pickettii), all three species contained two forms of phosphatidylethanolamine differing in the presence or absence of alpha-hydroxy fatty acids. This seems to be a distinctive feature of species in Pseudomonas RNA homology group II. Also, P. caryophylli and P. gladioli (but not P. pickettii) produced two forms of ornithine amide lipid, differing in the nature (hydroxy or non-hydroxy) of the ester-linked fatty acid. In all three species, the major non-hydroxy acids were hexadecanoic acid, a hexadecenoic acid, an octadecenoic acid, and cyclopropane derivatives of the monoenoic acids. The alpha-hydroxy acids were the derivatives of the same components, while the amide-linked acid of the ornithine amide lipids was mainly or entirely 3-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid. The possible taxonomic implications of the data are discussed.