A gas-liquid and thin-layer chromatographic study of Mycobacterium fortuitum

Forty-two strains of Mycobacterium fortuitum were examined for fatty acid composition by gas-liquid chromatography and for mycolic acid pattern by two dimensional thin-layer chromatography of whole cell acid methanolysates. The strains studied contained saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids from 12 to 24 carbon atoms and tuberculostearic acid, and they showed a thin-layer chromatographic pattern of mycolic acids similar to the pattern previously reported for this species and characterised by the presence of alpha and alpha'-mycolates and several more polar components. The heterogeneity within the species M. fortuitum, of its antigenic, biochemical and chemical properties, previously noted by several authors was slightly reflected (but not correlated) in the fatty acid composition found in the strains studied; the mycolic acid pattern of all of them was, however, very stable.