Study of the Lipid Profile of ATCC and Clinical Strains of in Relation to Their Antibiotic Resistance.

A number of reports have indicated a relationship between bacterial resistance to antibiotics and their lipid composition. In the present study, we characterized the lipid profiles of American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and clinical strains of and its correlation with antibiotic resistance and hydrophobicity. The following strains were used: ATCC 6538P, ATCC 43300 (MRSA), seven clinical strains from the pharynges, two strains from duodenal ulcers, four strains from hip prostheses, and one strain from the conjunctiva. Lipid-related differentiation was observed across the strains: the higher abundance of -pentadecanoic acid (-C) and -heptadecanoic acid (-C), followed by -pentadecanoic acid (-C), suggested that these were common lipids. -tridecanoic acid (-C) and -tridecanoic acid (-C), -hexadecanoic acid (-C) and -hexadecanoic acid (-C), and all forms of octadecanoic acid (C) were usually detected in low abundance. Strains isolated from pharynges showed the highest ratio of branched/straight chains. A distinction in two clusters based on the amount and type of bacterial lipids identified was obtained, which correlated to the antibiotic resistance, the strains origin, and the cell-surface hydrophobicity. We report a potential correlation between the lipid profile of strains, site of infection, antibiotic resistance, and cell-surface hydrophobicity. These results, which still need further insights, could be a first step to identifying antibiotic resistance in response to environmental adaptation.