Mycolic acid patterns of representatives of Mycobacterium bovis BCG

The mycolic acids of 15 cultures of representative Mycobacterium bovis BCG substrains were examined by alkaline hydrolysis followed by esterification and thin-layer chromatography of the resulting methyl esters. Representatives of the Moreau and Swedish substrains had mycolic acid patterns similar to M. bovis, composed of alpha-mycolates, methoxymycolates and ketomycolates, but examples of the Pasteur, Glaxo, Prague, Danish and Chinese substrains did not contain methoxymycolates. This apparent subdivision of M. bovis BCG substrains is in accordance with their varying antigenic patterns recorded in other studies.