Profile analysis of total mycolic acids from skin corynebacteria and from named Corynebacterium strains by gas-liquid chromatography and gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry.

Gas-liquid chromatography (g.l.c.) was investigated as a potential tool in the classification and identification of Cornyebacterium strains isolated from human skin, on the basis of the g.l.c. profile of the trimethylsilyl derivatives of their mycolic acid methyl esters. The g.l.c. patterns of five skin corynebacteria were compared with those of reference strains Corynebacterium diphtheriae PW8 and Corynebacterium xerosis NCTC 9755 and NCTC 7929. Further compositional information was obtained by gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (g.l.c./m.s.) of mycolates from C. diphtheriae PW8 and two of the skin isolates. In addition to identifying and examining the individual mycolate species and comparing the differences in mycolate profile between skin corynebacteria and between reference strains, a limited assessment was made of the possibility of distinguishing between organisms at both strain and species levels on the basis of mycolic acid composition as revealed by g.l.c. "fingerprinting".