Fatty acid composition and physiological properties of some filamentous blue-green algae

Summary

The fatty acids of 32 axenic strains of filamentous blue-green algae have been analyzed. As an aid to the interpretation of the results, the strains have been assigned to provisional typological groups based upon their morphology and certain physiological characters. The latter are the ability to grow heterotrophically in the dark with glucose as carbon and energy source, the ability to grow in the light at the expense of glucose in the presence of 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU), and the ability to synthesize nitrogenase under anaerobic conditions in the light. Each typological group has been given an appropriate generic name.

The strains examined for fatty acid composition can be divided into groups according to the major fatty acid of highest degree of unsaturation found in each strain as was done for the unicellular strains examined previously in this laboratory. Four metabolic groups of strains of unicellular and filamentous blue-green algae can be recognized: 1. those in which there is little or no desaturation of oleate; 2. those in which linoleate is desaturated toward the ω-end of the molecule to give α-linolenate; 3. those in which linoleate is desaturated toward the carboxyl end of the molecule to give γ-linolenate; 4. those in which octadecatetraenoate is synthesized. The nature of the major cellular fatty acids of two of the strains examined is the same whether growth is in the light or in the dark on glucose. All filamentous strains contain glycolipids with the properties of mono- and digalactosyldiglycerides.