ABSTRACTThe distribution of membrane lipids of 17 different strains representing 13 species of subdivisions 1 and 3 of the phylumAcidobacteria, a highly diverse phylum of theBacteria, were examined by hydrolysis and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (MS) and by high-performance liquid chromatography-MS of intact polar lipids. Upon both acid and base hydrolyses of total cell material, the uncommon membrane-spanning lipid 13,16-dimethyl octacosanedioic acid (iso-diabolic acid) was released in substantial amounts (22 to 43% of the total fatty acids) from all of the acidobacteria studied. This lipid has previously been encountered only in thermophilicThermoanaerobacterspecies but bears a structural resemblance to the alkyl chains of bacterial glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) that occur ubiquitously in peat and soil and are suspected to be produced by acidobacteria. As reported previously, most species also containediso-C15and C16:1ω7Cas major fatty acids but the presence ofiso-diabolic acid was unnoticed in previous studies, most probably because the complex lipid that contained this moiety was not extractable from the cells; it could only be released by hydrolysis. Direct analysis of intact polar lipids in the Bligh-Dyer extract of three acidobacterial strains, indeed, did not reveal any membrane-spanning lipids containingiso-diabolic acid. In 3 of the 17 strains, ether-boundiso-diabolic acid was detected after hydrolysis of the cells, including one branched GDGT containingiso-diabolic acid-derived alkyl chains. Since the GDGT distribution in soils is much more complex, branched GDGTs in soil likely also originate from other (acido)bacteria capable of biosynthesizing these components.
Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of nitrogen-containing intact polar lipids
