A New Family of Monoglucosylglyceride Diacyl Glycerol Lipids Containing Very Long Chain Bifunctional Acyl Chains in An Acidophilic Anaerobic Bacterium, Sarcina ventriculi
Seunho JUNG*a, and Rawle Irvine HOLLINGSWORTHb
a Department of Microbial Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul 143-701, Korea
b Department of Biochemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824, U.S.A.
Recent research on the fatty acyl chains in the membrane lipids in an acidophilic, strict anaerobic bacterium Sarcina ventriculi has shown that unusually long chain, bifunctional fatty acyl components are the major components of the total lipid (1,2,3). In this study, the structures of a new family of glucolipids containing bifunctional acyl chains are described. These structures were determined using NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectroscopy, GC (Gas Chromatography)/MS(Mass Spectrometry), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) spectroscopy and FAB(Fast Atom Bombardment) mass spectrometric studies. One of the major bifunctional acyl components of the α-glucolipids was an ω-formylmethyl ester indicating the presence of a plasmalogen. The general structure of the lipid components is one in which the two head groups are separated by a membrane-spanning acyl species. One head group component is glycerol and the other is a glyceryl glucoside. Two regular chain fatty acids, one on the glycerol moiety of each head group, are also present and meet in the middle of the membrane, roughly equi-distant from each head group.
1. Jung, S., Lowe, S., Zeikus, G. and Hollingsworth, R.I. (1993) J. Biol. Chem., 268, 2828-2835.
2. Jung, S. and Hollingsworth, R.I. (1994) J. Lipid Research, 35, 1932-1945.
3. Jung, S. and Hollingsworth, R.I. (1995) J. theor. Biol., 172, 121-126.
