title: Characterisation of membrane phospholipids and glycolipids from a halophilic archaebacterium by high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry.
abstract: Combined high-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray mass spectrometry (LC/ES-MS) has been used for direct characterisation of the polar membrane lipids in total lipid extracts from Halobacterium salinarium, a species of halophilic archaebacterium. The principle phospholipids found were the diphytanyl archaeol phosphatidylglycerol and diphytanyl archaeol phosphatidylglycerolphosphate methyl ester. The application of LC/ES-MS revealed the additional presence of diphytanyl archaeol phosphatidylglycerol sulphate The extracts also contained an archaeol glycolipid, initially detected in preliminary offline ES-MS studies, which was further characterised by LC/ES-MS and by product ion tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) as a sulphate ester of diglycosyl-2,3-di-O-phytanyl-sn-glycerol. Whilst archaeol phospho- and glycolipids containing a (C(20)-C(20))-isopranyl glycerol ether core predominated, LC/ES-MS of the extracts from Halobacterium salinarium indicated the presence of an analogue containing one double bond in its isoprenyl ether core as a minor component of the phosphatidylglycerolphosphate methyl ester fraction, providing a further example of the previously recognised existence of isoprenologues of diphytanyl archaeols which occur as minor components of archaebacterial membrane lipids. The value of these techniques in compositional analysis of archaebacterial lipid extracts is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Mass Spectrometry Research Unit, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Games
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Games
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Walton
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000737:chemistry*; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D006217:Halobacterium / Q000737:chemistry*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D006017:Glycolipids; D010743:Phospholipids