Ikuya Yano

Lipid and fatty acid compositions and their changes in the different organs and tissues of guppy, poecilia reticulata on sea water adaptation

Abstract 1. 1. Neutral and phospholipid composition from various organs of the guppy, such as the eye, gill, liver, digestive tract, kidney, gonad and muscle were examined in detail using TLC and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. 2. 2. Extractable lipids of these tissues contained mainly neutral lipids such as cholesterol esters, triglyceride and free cholesterol and phospholipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine. phosphatidylcholine, sphingomyelin and lysolecithin. 3. 3. The total lipid amounts, the ratios of phospholipid to neutral lipid and the lipid composition were affected by the rearing environmental salinity. 4. 4. In sea water adaptation the total lipid amount decreased in whole body. eye, liver and muscle, while it increased in gill, digestive tract and kidney. 5. 5. Total phospholipid amount increased in whole body, eye, gill, digestive tract, liver and kidney, with a concomitant decrease in neutral lipids in sea water adaptation. 6. 6. Phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin of the gill. digestive tract, liver and eye increased in sea water fishes, while phosphatidylcholine of the kidney decreased. Triglyceride and free cholesterol of all tissues decreased, while cholesterol esters increased in sea water. 7. 7. The fatty acids C 14:0 , C 16:0 , C 16:1 , C 18:0 , C 18:1 , C 18:2 , C 20:3 , C 20:1 , C 20:2 , C 20:3 ,C 20:4 , C 22:4 ,C 22:4 , C 22:5 and C 22:6 , were the main fatty acids present both in fresh water and in sea water. 8. 8. The proportion of saturated fatty acids to polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased in sea water adaptation.

Incorporation of 18O into long-chain, secondary alcohols derived from ester mycolic acids in Mycobacterium phlei

Abstract 18 O from an 18 O 2 atmosphere was actively incorporated into long-chain, secondary alcohols, such as 2-octadecanol, 2-eicosanol and 2-docosanol, which are derived from ester mycolic acids, by short-term incubation of the growing cell suspension of Mycobacterium phlei. Under the same conditions, the absence of significant ions due to 18 O incorporation into dicarboxy mycolic acids, which are also derived from ester mycolic acids, indicated that the ester mycolic acids were synthesized from keto mycolic acids by a reaction which is biologically equivalent to Baeyer-Villiger-type oxidation.

Mycobacterium fortuitum subspecies acetamidolyticum, a new subspecies of Mycobacterium fortuitum.

Mycobacterium fortuiturn subspecies acetamidolyticum is a new subspecies of M. fortuiturn and has an intermediate growth rate. It is a nonphotochromogenic mycobacterium. It does not utilize glutamate but utilizes acetamide as a simultaneous nitrogen and carbon source. It is able to utilize acetate, malate, pyruvate, fumarate, glucose, fructose, and n‐propanol as the sole sources of carbon in the presence of ammoniacal nitrogen, but does not utilize them in the presence of glutamate‐nitrogen. It is easily differentiated from all rapidly growing mycobacteria by its inability to utilize glutamate as a simultaneous nitrogen and carbon source, and from all slowly growing mycobacteria by its capacity to utilize acetamide as a simultaneous nitrogen and carbon source. Its mycolic acid pattern is different from that of M. fortuiturn. However, its deoxyribonucleic acid showed 94% relatedness with that of M. fortuiturn. In view of the above findings, it has been designated as a new subspecies of M. fortuiturn. The organism was isolated from sputum of a 56‐year‐old patient with lung disease and is considered to be a lung pathogen. The type strain is ATCC 35931 (NCH El 1620).

Isonicotinic acid hydrazide induced changes and inhibition in mycolic acid synthesis in Nocardia and related taxa

The mycolic acid compositions of Nocardia rubra and related bacteria grown in media containing different concentrations of antituberculous isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH) were determined in detail by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. On the basis of molecular species composition, average carbon numbers of mycolic acids were calculated. In Nocardia rubra, N. lutea and Rhodococcus rhodochrous IFO-13161, the ratio of mycolic to non-mycolic fatty acids and the average carbon numbers of mycolic acids were decreased at the INH concentrations of higher than 1 μg/ml, paralleling with the significant inhibition of growth. In above three species the synthesis of longer chain mycolic acids (longer than C44 or C46) was inhibited more significantly than shorter homologues such as C38 or C40. In contrast, neither growth inhibition nor change in corynomycolic acid composition was observed in Corynebacteria xerosis and Rhodococcus rhodochrous IFO-13165 at the concentration region of INH up to 100 μg/ml. The direct mass fragmentographic analysis of the trimethylsilylated (TMS) derivatives of mycolic acid methyl esters, monitoring [M-15] ions of individual molecular species, revealed that the chain shortening of total mycolic acid molecule by INH occurred more greatly in more highly unsaturated subclasses than in less unsaturated subclasses. Furthermore, mass fragmentographic analysis, monitoring fragment ions (A) and (B), due to straight chain and branched chain alkyl units, respectively, demonstrated the inhibition of mycolic acids was not attributed to the shortening of α-alkyl chain, but to the inhibition of chain elongation of C28 to C32 straight chain meromycolic acids. It was also indicated the amounts of trehalose mono- and di-mycolate (cord factor) decreased significantly with the addition of INH (1 to 20 μg/ml) in the above strains. From the results obtained above, INH appeared to inhibit the synthesis of mycolic acids longer than C44 or C46 specifically by inhibiting chain elongation or desaturation of precursor long chain fatty acids longer than C28 or C30.