Cellular fatty acid composition in staphylococci isolated from bovine milk.

Cellular fatty acid composition was examined in 61 strains of coagulase-negative staphylococci of bovine milk origin and 19 strains of Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis serving as reference strains. The 61 strains had been divided into 9 species in accordance with the classification of Kloos & Schleifer. When S. aureus and the coagulase-negative staphylococci were examined, they contained iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, C18:0, and C20:0 as main fatty acids. There was no marked difference in the cellular fatty acid composition between any two staphylococcal species. The percent cellular fatty acid composition of each species was regarded as one of the quantities of continuity and subjected to the analysis of variance by the unary configuration method. As a result, S. capitis, S. cohnii, S. epidermidis, and S. xylosus seemed to have a cellular fatty acid composition a little different from that of any other species. When similarity values among all the strains were calculated, they were 0.89 or more and made it possible to divide all the strains into two large groups at the similarity value of 0.90. In the one group the iso-C15:0 was a characteristic fatty acid. In the other group the anteiso-C15:0 was a characteristic fatty acid. To the first group belonged S. hyicus and S. lentus. To the second group belonged S. cohnii, S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis, S. saprophyticus, and S. warneri. In the two groups were distributed S. aureus, S. capitis, S. simulans, and S. xylosus.