Further studies on the lipids of corynebacteria. The mannolipids of Corynebacterium aquaticum.

1. The major free lipids of Corynebacterium aquaticum were characterized as dimannosyl diglyceride, monomannophosphoinositide and phosphatidylethanolamine. Bisphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol were also tentatively identified. 2. We regard this as the only well-documented case of an organism containing monomannophosphoinositide to the exclusion of dimannophosphoinositides and the higher homologues. 3. The co-existence of the two mannolipids in one organism is a distinctive feature. So also is the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine in a corynebacterium. 4. The monomannophosphoinositide apparently does not utilize phosphatidylinositol as a precursor, unlike the monomannophosphoinositide of Propionibacterium shermanii. CDP-diglyceride may be necessary for its synthesis.