Occurrence of squalene and sterols in Cellulomonas dehydrogenans (Arnaudi 1942) comb. nov. Hester 1971

The neutral lipid fraction of the photochromogenic, coryneform bacterium Cellulomonas dehydrogenans (Arnaudi 1942) comb. nov. contains the sterol precursor squalene and at least two sterols, cholesterol and beta-sitosterol. The compounds were characterized by mass spectrometry and combination gas-liquid chromatography--mass spectrometry. De novo sterol biosynthetic ability was shown from incorporation of 14C from D-[U-14C]glucose into squalene and the sterol fraction. The squalene concentration approximated 0.002 to 0.005% of the total dry cell weight, and the sterols approximated 0.03 to 0.05%.