Research on the composition of the fatty acids in chalmydospores of Ustilagioidea virens

Abstract:

[Objective] In order to investigate the relationship between the fatty acid composition and content and cell stress resistance in intracellular and cell wall. [Methods] In this study, three methods had been used for extracting the fatty acid from walls of chalmydospores, which were acid-heat method, soxhlet extraction and organic solvent, respectively. The fatty acid composition and content were detected by GC afterwards. [Results] Acid-heat extraction presented the best performance, by which the relative contents of saturated fatty acids in yellow, yellowish green and black chlamydospore walls were 26.92%, 17.23%, 23.71%, respectively, while unsaturated ones were 60.46%, 61.52%, 70.64%, separately. Further determination with the above same method, the relative total contents of 3 types of chlamydospores saturated fatty acids (precipitating wall plus supernatant) were 28.87%, 21.00%, 24.04%, separately and unsaturated ones with 55.43%, 55.87%, 63.89%, respectively. The content of stearic acid in saturated fatty acids in chlamydospore wall were yellow > yellowish green > black; the content of cis-5,8,11,14,17 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) methyl ester in unsaturated fatty acids in chlamydospore wall: black > yellowish green > yellow. [Conclusion] In all three colors of chlamydospore, either the total content of unsaturated fatty acids in spore or spore wall, the black showed the highest, which indicated that improving the content of unsaturated fatty acids in chlamydospores contributes to their dormancy and overwintering.