Analysis of in situ methylated microbial fatty acid constituents by curie-point pyrolysis—gas chromatography—mass spectrometry

Abstract

A newly developed Curie-point pyrolyzer has been used to analyze microbial fatty acid constituents. The pyrolysis was carried out on ferromagnetic wires, which were loaded into the gas chromatographic injector—pyrolyzer via a retractable Pyrex glass tube. Fatty acid methyl esters were obtained by in situ methylation of the free and glycerol bound fatty acids with trimethylanilinium hydroxide. The procedure was applied sucessfully to whole microorganisms. There was good agreement between the fatty acid methyl ester profiles from the whole-cell pyrolysis and from the lipid extracts of the corresponding organisms.