Effects of n-alcohols on the fatty acid composition

Range Table - link % of total fatty acids
Organism Bacteria Escherichia coli
Reference Ingram LO. Adaptation of membrane lipids to alcohols. J Bacteriol. 1976 Feb125(2):670-8. p.672 table 1PubMed ID1107328
Method "The washed chloroform extract was evaporated to near dryness under dry N2 and transesterified using 2% H2SO4 in methanol, as described by Silbert et al. (25). The methyl esters were extracted into pentane and concentrated under N2 prior to analysis."
Comments "The presence of alcohols in rich growth media results in a considerable change in fatty acid composition (Table 1). The degree of this variation in fatty acid composition is strongly dependent upon alcohol concentration. For ethanol, this relationship is shown from 1 to 4%. The alcohol concentration required to cause a given change in fatty acid composition is inversely related to chain length, as is toxicity. The molar effectiveness of alcohols in eliciting an adaptive change in fatty acids is directly related to their lipid solubility, indicative of a direct membrane interaction (Fig. 1). The highest concentrations of alcohols reported in Table 1 represent concentrations of alcohols causing 30 to 50% growth inhibition after 3 h under the described conditions of incubation."
Entered by Uri M
ID 110948