THIRKELL, D. and GRAY, E. M. M. 1974. Variation in the lipid and fatty acid composition in purified membrane fractions from Sarcina aurantiaca in relation to growth phase. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 40: 71-78.
S. aurantiaca membrane lipid contains both branched and straight-chain fatty acids from C9 to C22 with the saturated branched C15 predominating in almost all of the lipid fractions studied. Unsaturated fatty acids are only present in low concentrations. Significant amounts of straight-chain, even-numbered acids, more common in gram-negative and gram-variable bacteria, are also present. All lipid fractions show a marked change in their fatty acid profiles from the exponential to stationary phase of growth. At least 88 ~ of the total lipid is "free" lipid, and of this material, at least 62 ~ is neutral lipid. The amount of the latter decreases, with a corresponding increase in phospholipid as cells go into stationary phase. During this time, there is a slight fall in the amount of glycolipid which contains predominately mannose, but also glucose and galactose.
lipid or acid hydrolysate), the branched-chain C15 fatty acid predominates. This was also the predominant acid found in S. aurantiaca by Morrison et al. (1971) although they did not give any indication of the relative amounts of fatty acids present. The neutral lipid, glycolipid and phospholipid fractions appear to contain similar fatty acids, the main difference being an increased proportion of the longer chain acids in the neutral lipids.