Gas chromatographic assessment of alcoholyzed fatty acids from yeasts: a new chemotaxonomic method.

An alternative chemotaxonomic method to methanolysis was developed for gas chromatographic assessment of fatty acids in whole yeast cells. Clinical and reference strains of the medically important yeasts Candida albicans, Torulopsis glabrata, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were cultured for 48 h at 26 degrees C. Cellular lysis and transesterification were then performed with ethanol, propanol, butanol, or methanol. The relative recovery rates for cellular fatty acids, including the volatile acids C10:0 and C12:0, were similar after alcoholysis with ethanol, propanol, or butanol, while methanolysis gave lower recoveries of volatile fatty acids. Thus, after ethanolysis, the recovery of C10:0 acid (0.1, 1, and 10%) from a defined matrix (lyophilized Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans cells) varied from 97 to 102%, while the recovery of C10:0 after methanolysis varied from 49 to 75%. This indicated that with the frequently used methanolysis technique, there is a considerable loss of volatile fatty acids. These acids may be used as marker molecules for taxonomic differentiation between yeasts.