Cellular I'atty Acid Composition of the Legionnaires' Disease Bacterium 



Each new growth medium used for the LDB has been evaluated for its effect on cellular 

 fatty acids. The fatty acid compositions of two LDB strains grown on M-H and CYE agars are 

 described in Table 2. The data show no qualitative differences in fatty acids of cells hai-vested 

 from the two media. However, the total proportion of branched-chain fatty acids was higher for 

 cells grown on the M-H medium than for those grown on CYE agar (7% higher for strain Berkeley 

 and 6% higher for strain Flint 2). The same relationship was observed for several other strains: the 

 average total cellular branched-chain fatty acid content for 36 strains was 79% on M-H medium 

 and 68% on CYE agar (Table 2). The cellular fatty acid compositions of strains grown on F-G 

 agar and on Pine's semisynthetic medium were essentially identical to those of strains grown on 



Table 1 . 



Cellular fatty acid composition of six strains of the 



Legionnaires" disease bacterium. 



a Number to the left of tlie colon refers to tlie number of carbon atoms; number to the right refers to the number of double 

 bonds: i- indicates a methyl branch at the iso-carbon atom; a- indicates a methyl branch at the anteiso-carbon; Br indicates a 

 branched-chain acid. 



b Data obtained from a second experiment of cells processed through the entire procedure of growth, saponification, extraction. 

 and GLC analysis. 



c Numbers refer to percentages of total acids; T = less than 2%. 



52 



