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Applied Microbiology logoLink to Applied Microbiology
. 1974 Jul;28(1):80–85. doi: 10.1128/am.28.1.80-85.1974

Comparison of Rapid Methods for Analysis of Bacterial Fatty Acids

C Wayne Moss 1, M A Lambert 1, W H Merwin 1,1
PMCID: PMC186596  PMID: 4844271

Abstract

When rapid gas-liquid chromatography methods for determination of bacterial fatty acids were compared, results showed that saponification was required for total fatty acid analysis. Transesterification with boron-trihalide reagents (BF3-CH3OH, BCl3-CH3OH) caused extensive degradation of cyclopropane acids and was less effective than saponification in releasing cellular hydroxy fatty acids. Digestion of cells with tetramethylammonium hydroxide was unsatisfactory because of extraneous gas-liquid chromatography peaks and because of lower recovery of branched-chain and hydroxy fatty acids. A simple, rapid saponification procedure which can be used for total cellular fatty acid analysis of freshly grown cells is described.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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