[Ultrastructural characteristics of Actinomyces olivaceus in the process of development of a culture as related to lipid synthesis].

The cytomorphology of an Actinomyces olivaceus culture was studied, in the course of its submerged cultivation in two media differing in phosphate content, in relation to lipid biosynthesis. The cells (including those grown under the conditions of phosphate deficiency in the medium) have well-developed membranous apparatus, particularly during the exponential growth phase and in the transition to the stationary phase whose time depends on the composition of the medium. No visible defects were found in the membranous apparatus of cells grown under the conditions of phosphate deficiency; the lipid component of these cells contained ornithinolipid instead of phosphatidyl ethanolamine. The fraction of ornithinolipid which had been found in this culture only under the conditions of phosphate deficiency was detected now in cells cultivated in a medium lacking CoCl2.6H2O but without phosphate deficiency during the stationary growth phase using the techniques of column and thin-layer chromatography. Nitrogen-containing polar lipids comprise cephalin (86.5%) and ornithinolipid (13.3%).