Lipid composition of growing and starving cells of Arthrobacter crystallopoietes.

The lipid composition of growing and starving cells of Arthrobacter crystallopoietes was compared. Although the lipid composition of the two cell types was similar, the amount of total lipids recovered from the starving cells was 30.4% less than that recovered from the growing cells. The loss of lipids, as compared to the loss of total cell mass during starvation, was (i) proportional to the loss of the cell mass (phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol-2, and cardiolipin), (ii) greater than the loss in cell mass (neutral lipids, "glycophospholipids," and phosphatidic acid), or (iii) less than the loss in cell mass (coenzyme Q, glycolipids, and phosphatidylglycerol-1).