Diphytanyl and dibiphytanyl glycerol ether lipids of methanogenic archaebacteria.

The lipids of nine different methanogenic bacterial strains are comprised of diphytanyl glycerol diethers, previously known only in extremely halophilic bacterial, as well as dibiphytanyl diglycerol tetraethers, known formerly only in the extremely thermoacidophilic bacteria Thermoplasma and Sulfolobus. Of the methanogens examined from four representative taxonomic groups, Methanobacterium and Methanospirillum contained both types of isopranyl ethers in nearly equal proportions, whereas the coccal forms, Methanosarcina and Methanococcus, possessed diphytanyl glycerol diethers, but with only a trace of or no dibiphytanyl diglycerol tetraethers. The occurrence of both types of isopranyl glycerol ethers in methanogenic bacteria supports the proposal that they have a close genealogical relationship to the extremely halophilic and thermoacidophilic bacteria.

[1]  W. J. Dyer,et al.  A rapid method of total lipid extraction and purification. , 1959, Canadian journal of biochemistry and physiology.

[2]  T. Tornabene.  Lipid composition of selected strains of Yersinia pestis and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. , 1973, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[3]  W. Mayberry,et al.  Long-Chain Glycerol Diether and Polyol Dialkyl Glycerol Triether Lipids of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius , 1974, Journal of bacteriology.

[4]  W. Mayberry,et al.  Lipids of Thermoplasma acidophilum , 1972, Journal of bacteriology.

[5]  C R Woese,et al.  Classification of methanogenic bacteria by 16S ribosomal RNA characterization. , 1977, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[6]  M. Rosa,et al.  Chemical structure of the ether lipids of thermophilic acidophilic bacteria of the Caldariella group , 1977 .

[7]  T. Langworthy,et al.  Long-chain diglycerol tetraethers from Thermoplasma acidophilum. , 1977, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[8]  C. Woese,et al.  Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms , 1977, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  D. Cornwell,et al.  Quantitative estimation and identification of o-alkyl glycerols as alkyl iodides and their hydrocarbon derivatives , 1971 .

[10]  M. Kates,et al.  A DIETHER ANALOG OF PHOSPHATIDYL GLYCEROPHOSPHATE IN HALOBACTERIUM CUTIRUBRUM. , 1965, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[11]  M. Singer,et al.  Ether-containing lipids of methanogenic bacteria. , 1978, Biochemical and biophysical research communications.

[12]  J. Zeikus,et al.  Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicus sp. n., an Anaerobic, Autotrophic, Extreme Thermophile , 1972, Journal of bacteriology.