Thin-layer chromatographic analysis of mycolic acid and other long-chain components in whole-organism methanolysates of coryneform and related taxa.

Acid methanolysates of strains representing 58 coryneform taxa were examined for mycolic acids and other long-chain constituents by thin-layer chromatography. Mycolic esters were detected in the methanolysates of true corynebacteria but not in those from plant pathogenic bacteria, Corynebacterium haemolyticum, Corynebacterium pyogenes or from representatives of the genera Arthrobacter, Cellulomonas, Curtobacterium, Kurthia or Oerskovia. Thin-layer chromatography of whole-organism methanolysates provides a simple method for distinguishing true corynebacteria from coryneforms which do not contain mycolic acids, and from nocardiae and mycobacteria which produce mycolic acids of different mobility. At present the mycolic esters of true corynebacteria cannot be clearly separated from those of some rhodochrous strains.