Cellular fatty acid composition of Campylobacter pylori from primates and ferrets compared with those of other campylobacters.

The cellular fatty acid profiles of newly described campylobacters were determined on a polar, capillary column. Six isolates of the gastric spiral organism, Campylobacter pylori subsp. mustelae, from ferrets from Australia, England, and the United States were all found to have a similar fatty acid profile which was different from that of C. pylori from humans; C. pylori subsp. mustelae did not have 3-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (3-OH C18:0) and had much less tetradecanoic acid (C14:0) and much more hexadecanoic acid (C16:0). Inasmuch as Lambert et al. (M.A. Lambert, C.M. Patton, T.J. Barrett, and C.W. Moss, J. Clin. Microbiol. 25:706-713, 1987) have proposed that campylobacters can be grouped by cellular fatty acid composition, we propose this organism should be in a new gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) group, group J. Seven isolates of gastric spiral organisms from macaque monkeys and baboons, including three from Macaca nemestrina, and one isolate from a pig were found to have fatty acid profiles very similar to that of C. pylori; but a second type of organism (type B) from M. nemestrina had a unique profile without 19-carbon cyclopropane fatty acid (C19:0 cyc) but with 3-hydroxy tetradecanoic acid (OH C14:0), which is not present in other gastric spiral bacteria. We propose that this organism (nemestrina type B) should be in a new GLC group, group K. The cellular fatty acid profile of seven isolates of C. jejuni subsp. doylei was found to be similar to that for C. jejuni, but with possibly significant differences in that the former did not have 3-OH C14:0 but did have 3-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid (3-OH C16:0) and had more C14:0 than did C. jejuni. Two strains of urease-positive thermophilic campylobacters were found to have a profile similar to that of "C. cinaedi" and thus should be included with them in GLC group D. We confirm that C. sputorum has a unique cellular fatty acid composition and suggest that it should be in a new group, group H.