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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6678-6685, Vol. 70, No. 11
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6678-6685.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Novel Sulfonolipid in the Extremely Halophilic Bacterium Salinibacter ruber

Angela Corcelli,^1,2* Veronica M. T. Lattanzio,¹ Giuseppe Mascolo,³ Francesco Babudri,^4,5 Aharon Oren,⁶ and Morris Kates⁷

Dipartimento di Biochimica Medica e Biologia Medica,¹ Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari,⁴ IPCF-CNR,² IRSA-CNR,³ ICCOM-CNR, Bari, Italy,⁵ The Institute of Life Sciences and The Moshe Shilo Minerva Center for Marine Biogeochemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel,⁶ Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada⁷

Received 17 May 2004/ Accepted 29 June 2004

Salinibacter ruber is an extremely halophilic bacterium, phylogenetically affiliated with the Flavobacterium/Cytophaga branch of the domain Bacteria. Electrospray mass analyses (negative ion) of the total lipid extract of a pure culture of S. ruber shows a characteristic peak at m/z 660 as the most prominent peak in the high-mass range of the spectrum. A novel sulfonolipid, giving rise to the molecular ion [M-H]^– of m/z 660, has been identified. The sulfonolipid isolated and purified by thin-layer chromatography was shown by chemical degradation, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis to have the structure 2-carboxy-2-amino-3-O-(13'-methyltetradecanoyl)-4-hydroxy-18-methylnonadec-5-ene-1-sulfonic acid. This lipid represents about 10% of total cellular lipids, and it appears to be a structural variant of the sulfonolipids found as main components of the cell envelope of gliding bacteria of the genus Cytophaga and closely related genera (W. Godchaux and E. R. Leadbetter, J. Bacteriol. 153:1238-1246, 1983) and of diatoms (R. Anderson, M. Kates, and B. E. Volcani, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 528:89-106, 1978). Since this sulfonolipid has never been observed in any other extreme halophilic microorganism, we consider the peak at m/z 660 the lipid signature of Salinibacter. This study suggests that this novel sulfonolipid may be used as a chemotaxonomic marker for the detection of Salinibacter within the halophilic microbial community in saltern crystallizer ponds and other hypersaline environments.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dipartimento di Biochimica Medica e Biologia Medica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Piazza G. Cesare, 70125 Bari, Italy. Phone: 39 80 5478108. Fax: 38 80 5478109. E-mail: a.corcelli{at}biologia.uniba.it.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6678-6685, Vol. 70, No. 11
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6678-6685.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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