Gaschromatography of Constitutive Fatty Acids inMycobacterium leprae

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Abstract
A constitutive saturated and mononusaturated fatty acid pattern of M. leprae, isolated from the liver of a 9-banded armadillo with experimental leprosy, was analyzed gas chromatographically and compared with that of cultured M. lepraemurium, M. avium, M. bovis strain BCG and M. smegmatis. In comparing the fatty acid pattern thus obtained and the known structure of mycolic acids in these mycobacteria, an experimental rule that each species of mycobacteria has a relatively high content of normal (straight-chained) saturated fatty acid having 2 more C than those of the .alpha.-branch in this species'' mycolic acids, coincided well for all mycobacteria tested. M. leprae contained a relatively high content of behenic acid (n-C22:0); the C number of the .alpha.-branch in this species'' mycolic acids is 20. These data suggested the possibility of simple detection of M. leprae by gas chromatography.