Isolation of Lipid Cell Envelope Components from Acinetobacter baumannii

With the increasing occurrence of antibiotic resistance among Acinetobacter sp., the race is on for researchers to not only isolate resistant isolates but also utilize basic and applied microbiological techniques to study mechanisms of resistance. For many antibiotics, the limit of efficacy against Gram-negative bacteria is dependent on its ability to permeate the outer membrane and access its target. As such, it is critical that researchers be able to isolate and analyze the lipid components of the cell envelope from any number of Acinetobacter sp. that are either resistant or sensitive to antibiotics of interest. The following chapter provides in-depth protocols to confirm the presence or absence of lipooligosaccharide (LOS) in Acinetobacter sp., isolate lipid A, and glycerophospholipids and analyze them using qualitative (mass spectrometry) and semiquantitative (thin-layer chromatography) methods.