Abstract
The polar lipids of the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, the causative agent of tetanus, have been examined by two-dimensional thin layer chromatography, ESI mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy. Plasmalogen and di- and tetra-acylated species of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, cardiolipin, and N-acetylglucosaminyl diradylglycerol were the major lipids present in most strains examined except for strain ATCC 10779, the parent of strain E88, the first C. tetani strain to have its genome sequenced. This strain contained the same di- and tetra-acylated species but did not contain plasmalogens. All strains contained a novel derivative of N-acetylglucosaminyl diradylglycerol in which a phosphoethanolamine unit is attached to the 6'-position of the sugar, as judged by selective 31P-decoupled, 1H-detected NMR difference spectroscopy. The N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) residue is presumably linked to the 3-positon of the diradylglycerol moiety, and it has the beta-anomeric configuration. Very little plasmalogen component was detected by mass spectrometry in the precursors phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylserine, consistent with the idea that plasmalogens are formed from diacylated phospholipids at a late stage of phospholipid assembly in anaerobic clostridia.
Highlights
The polar lipids of the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, the causative agent of tetanus, have been examined by two-dimensional thin layer chromatography, ESI mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy
Two-dimensional TLC of the total lipids of C. tetani ATCC 10779 revealed five major polar lipids, four of which were tentatively identified as PtdEtn, PtdGro, cardiolipin, and a GlcNAc-diacylglycerol, based on their relative mobility and staining with phosphomolybdate, ninhydrin, or ␣-naphthol
Because plasmalogens are commonly found in anaerobic bacteria, including members of the genus Clostridium, we carried out exposure to HCl fumes between the first and second dimensions of the 2D-TLC [9]
Summary
The polar lipids of the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, the causative agent of tetanus, have been examined by two-dimensional thin layer chromatography, ESI mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy. Plasmalogen and di- and tetra-acylated species of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, cardiolipin, and N-acetylglucosaminyl diradylglycerol were the major lipids present in most strains examined except for strain ATCC 10779, the parent of strain E88, the first C. tetani strain to have its genome sequenced. This strain contained the same di- and tetra-acylated species but did not contain plasmalogens.
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