Semipreparative isolation of individual cyanobacterial heterocyst-type glycolipids by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

Procedures are described for the quantitative, semi-preparative isolation of individual cyanobacterial heterocyst-type glycolipids (HGs) by reverse-phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) and the modifications to conventional techniques necessary to prevent significant HG losses during sample preparation. Total lipids are obtained from cultures of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria by triplicate extraction with 200 packed-cell volumes of chloroform/methanol (1/1, v/v), filtered, and redissolved in chloroform for loading onto a short disposable column of acid-washed silica. After removal of neutral lipids, pigments, and the majority of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol with chloroform and chloroform/acetone, HGs are eluted along with other complex lipids in methanol. The complex lipids are then fractionated by TLC and the HGs isolated as two classes of differing mobilities. The individual components of each class are then resolved by isocratic elution with methanol/water (91/9, v/v) from a C18 RP-HPLC column with refractive index detection. Samples of up to approximately 1.0 mg lipid can be completely separated and the major components isolated in high purity from a single run. Structural studies on the major HG of Nostoc azollae show it to be the glycosylated hexacosane-1,3,25-triol found by others in Anabaena cylindrica.