Open AccessGC/MS determination of fatty acid picolinyl esters by direct Curie-point pyrolysis of whole bacterial cells
Author(s) -
Sławomir Kurkiewicz,
Zofia Dzierżewicz,
Tadeusz Wilczok,
Jacek P. Dworzański
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the american society for mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.961
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1879-1123
pISSN - 1044-0305
DOI - 10.1016/s1044-0305(02)00817-6
Subject(s) - chemistry , derivatization , chromatography , degree of unsaturation , pyrolytic carbon , fatty acid , organic chemistry , fatty acid methyl ester , mass spectrometry , gas chromatography , reagent , pyrolysis , biodiesel , catalysis
A single-step method suitable for cellular fatty acid derivatization to picolinyl esters with the use of a pyrolyzer as a thermochemical micro-reactor was developed for whole bacterial cells. This reduced the preparation time from several hours to less than two minutes. In addition, the minimal bacterial mass required for analysis was reduced from several milligrams to micrograms. The profiling of cellular fatty acids of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was achieved using three derivatization methods: preparation of methyl esters, beta-picolinyl esters by Harvey's method and a new method based on pyrolytic derivatization to beta-picolinyl esters. It was shown that there are great similarities between profiles of bacterial fatty acids determined by the pyrolytic derivatization method and traditional preparation methods of picolinyl and methyl esters prior to GC analysis. Results obtained by application of the new technique have immense diagnostic value due to vast similarities between profiles of fatty acids derivatized to either picolinyl and methyl esters. Although the latter are referred to in the literature most often, mass spectra of picolinyl esters contain fragment ions that provide structural information about the chain branching, position of unsaturation, and other substituents.