Usefulness of cellular fatty acid patterns for identification and pathogenicity of Yersinia species

The cellular fatty acid composition of common non-pathogenic and pathogenic Yersinia strains was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. This study included most of the species of the genus Yersinia, with the exception of Y. pestis. All species possess a rather similar fatty acid pattern characterized by some major compounds, namely C12:0, 14:0, 3-OH-14:0, 16:0, 16,1 omega 9cis, 17:0 cyclic and 18:1 omega 9trans acids, as in other Enterobacteriaceae. By using the overlap coefficient of Bousfield, the similarity value enabled us to identify easily the Yersinia genus of an unknown strain. In the same way, the pathogenicity of strains of Yersinia enterocolitica and related species can be determined by the C12:0/C16:0 and C14:0/C16:0 ratios