title: Structural characterization of the polar lipids of Clostridium novyi NT. Further evidence for a novel anaerobic biosynthetic pathway to plasmalogens.
abstract: A study of the polar lipids of Clostridium novyi NT has revealed the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and cardiolipin as major phospholipids with smaller amounts of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), lysyl-PG and alanyl-PG. Other minor phospholipids included phosphatidic acid, CDP-diacylglycerol, phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylthreonine (PT). PE, PG and amino acyl PG were present in both the diacyl and alk-1'-enyl acyl (plasmalogen) forms and cardiolipin plasmalogens were found to contain one or two alk-1'-enyl chains. In contrast, the precursor lipids phosphatidic acid, CDP-diacylglycerol and PS were present almost exclusively as diacyl phospholipids. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that plasmalogens are formed from diacylated phospholipids at a late stage of phospholipid formation in Clostridium species. This novel pathway contrasts with the route in animals in which a saturated ether bond is formed at an early stage of plasmalogen biosynthesis and the alk-1-enyl bond is formed by an aerobic mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Ziqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Norah C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Semra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aygun-Sunar
authors.forename: Fevzi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Daldal
authors.forename: Christian R H
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Raetz
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goldfine
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis / Q000502:physiology; D003013:Clostridium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010955:Plasmalogens / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010955:Plasmalogens