Critical Assessment of Glyco- and Phospholipid Separation by Using Silica Chromatography

作者：Sandra M. Heinzelmann, Nicole J. Bale, Ellen C. Hopmans, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté, Stefan Schouten, Marcel T. J. van der Meer · 发表于：Applied and Environmental Microbiology · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1128/aem.02817-13 · 被引用次数：40 · 研究领域：Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies、Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies、Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Phospholipid-derived fatty acids (PLFAs) are commonly used to characterize microbial communities in situ and the phylogenetic positions of newly isolated microorganisms. PLFAs are obtained through separation of phospholipids from glycolipids and neutral lipids using silica column chromatography. We evaluated the performance of this separation method for the first time using direct detection of intact polar lipids (IPLs) with high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). We show that under either standard or modified conditions, the phospholipid fraction contains not only phospholipids but also other lipid classes such as glycolipids, betaine lipids, and sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerols. Thus, commonly reported PLFA compositions likely are not derived purely from phospholipids and perhaps may not be representative of fatty acids present in living microbes.