title: Identification of beta-L-gulose as the sugar moiety of the main polar lipid Thermoplasma acidophilum.
abstract: The main polar lipid (MPL) of Thermoplasma acidophilum has been purified and its structure determined. NMR, mass spectrometry, and capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry experiments have shown that the previously unidentified sugar moiety of MPL is the rare sugar L-gulose. MPL is thus a tetraether lipid with cyclopentane rings and head groups of phosphoglycerol, as previously reported, and beta-L-gulopyranose. Further, MPL is also the dominant lipid found in lipid extracts from another species of the Thermoplasma genus, T. volcanium, suggesting that L-gulose may represent a dominant sugar moiety of the polar lipids biosynthesized by this archaeobacterial genus. Minor phospholipids were tentatively identified as diether and hydroxydiether analogs of phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylinositol.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biological Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swain
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brisson
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Sprott
authors.forename: F P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D006017:Glycolipids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006601:Hexoses / Q000032:analysis*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D013822:Thermoplasma / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D006017:Glycolipids; D006601:Hexoses; C057406:gulose