Mycolic acid composition and thermally adaptative changes in Nocardia asteroides

The nocardomycolic acid compositions of extractable and the cell wall-bound lipids from five strains of Nocardia asteroides (A-23007, A-23094, B-23006, B-23095, and IFO 3384) were compared by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The molecular species composition of mycolic acid differed significantly among the strains of N. asteroides. The A-23007 strain possessed the shortest species, centering at C(44(46)), and the A-23094 and IFO-3384 strains followed, each centering at C(52). The B-23006 and B-23095 strains possessed the longest species, centering at C(56) or C(54), thus indicating that N. asteroides strains accommodate a heterogeneous group in respect to carbon numbers of mycolic acids. The doublebond isomers of mycolic acids from the representative strain IFO 3384 were fully separated and analyzed by argentation thin-layer chromatography, followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The reference strain (IFO 3384) possessed up to four double bonds on the straight chain of mycolic acids ranging from C(46) to C(60). All of the species possessed a C(14) alkyl branch at C-2. The more highly unsaturated subclasses consisted of the longer-chain mycolic acids. Marked changes in mycolic acid composition were induced by altering the growth temperature of strain IFO 3384. The cells grown at the higher temperature (50 degrees C) contained more saturated mycolic acids, whereas those grown at the lower temperature (17 degrees C) had more polyunsaturated (up to tetraenoic) mycolic acids, although a significant difference in carbon chain length was not detected. These changes in the degree of unsaturation of mycolic acids occurred shortly after shifting the growth temperature from 17 to 50 degrees C at logarithmic stages of the bacterial growth, thus indicating that N. asteroides can adapt to changes in the environmental temperature by altering the structure of mycolic acids of the cell walls.