Direct injection mass spectrometry, thin layer chromatography, and gas chromatography of Bacillus subtilis phospholipids
Abstrakt
Direct injection mass spectrometry was amended with chromatographic methods in analysis of membrane phospholipids of Bacillus subtilis mutant strain, which contains four polar headgroups only (phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidic acid). Phospholipid classes were determined by thin layer chromatography as the basic method.
Analysis of fatty acids by gas chromatography determined relative abundances of saturated, unsaturated, linear, and branched C-14 to C-18 fatty acids in phospholipids. Experimental data measured by direct injection mass spectrometry in the m/z range of 590-790 were used to estimate theoretical phospholipid composition which was compared with the data of chromatographic methods.
The phospholipid class relative abundances measured by mass spectrometry did not agree fully with those of thin layer chromatography and the probable explanation was proposed. The direct injection mass spectrometry approach seems to be fast and easy procedure suitable for analyses of proportional changes in phospholipid composition and can be used as a complementary method for trend analyses and in process monitoring.