High Pressure Liquid Chromatography in the Analysis of Fatty Acid Composition of Oral Streptococci and its Comparison to Gas Chromatography.

Abstract : In the bacterial strains used, high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to find a C20, C22, and C24 present in approximately equal concentrations. Evidence was found of C21, C23, and C25 acids at about 10% of the C20 concentration. These fatty acids had not previously been reported. There was also evidence of two C16:1 fatty acids being present. The GC and HPLC data were similar in respect to the major fatty acid peaks, but the ratios of individual peaks in the GC chromatograms did not correlate well with the ratios in the HPLC chromatograms. The HPLC provided improved separation over standard GC techniques, and sensitivity of the HPLC methodology was 100 times that of FID in GC. The authors feel that HPLC methodology will aid in the chemical taxonomic studies for the identification of bacteria.