CHAPTER 



BIOSYNTHESIS OF 

 CYCLOPROPANE FATTY ACIDS 



1. ESTIMATION OF THE FATTY ACID 

 COMPOSITION OF BACTERIAL UPIDS 



A method for the quantitative estimation of individual 

 fatty acids in small samples of bacterial lipids was required 

 to permit insight into the metabolic interplay among 

 various fatty acids in bacterial metabolism. 



In 1950, Bolding (1) devised a chromatographic micro- 

 technique for determining the composition of mixtures of 

 straight-chain saturated fatty acids. This procedure was 

 modified in our laboratory (2) and applied to the simul- 

 taneous determination of monoethenoid, saturated, and 

 branched chain fatty acids as they occur in the lipids of 

 certain microorganisms. The method involves (1) isolation 

 of the fatty acids from the acid autoclaved cells, (2) hydrox- 

 ylation of the fatty acid mixture with performic acid, (3) 

 separation of the resulting mixture of hydroxylated fatty 

 acids by reversed phase chromatography on rubber columns, 

 and (4) microbiological determination of lactobacillic acid 



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