Cellular Fatty Acid Composition of Vibrio parahaemolyticus by Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

High-performance liquid chromatography was used to separate and identify cellular fatty acids isolated from Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a gram-negative estuarine microorganism associated with seafood-borne enteritis in man. Fatty acids were isolated from statically grown bacterial cultures, saponified, and derivatized with an ultraviolet tag. Aliquots of derivatized fatty acids were injected onto a reversed-phase column with water:acetonitrile gradient as the mobile phase and ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. The predominant fatty acids found for the V. parahaemolyticus strains studied were C12, C14, C16:1, C16, C18:1, and C18. In addition, previously unreported fatty acids C13, C17, C19, and C21 were identified. Comparison of HPLC with GLC fatty acid separations showed good agreement with the exception that HPLC was able to resolve previously unidentified fatty acid constituents.