Abstract
THE ubiquitous occurrence of steroids in nature, and their fundamental importance for plant and animal life, are well known. Until 1967, steroids had been encountered only in eukaryotic organisms, and had not been detected in prokaryotic organisms, the bacteria and blue–green algae. In recent years, sterols and the sterol precursor, squalene, have been detected in several classes of such organisms (Table 1). Quantitative studies are few, but they indicate that the amounts of steroids (expressed as a percentage of dry weight of organism) found in the prokaryotes are substantially lower than those of eukaryotes. Here we report that the bacterium Methylococcus capsulatus, grown on methane as the sole carbon source, contains comparatively large amounts of squalene and sterols.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tornabene, T. G., Kates, M., Gelpi, E., and Oró, J., Lipid Res., 10, 294 (1969).
Suzue, G., Tsukada, K., Nakai, C., and Tanaka, S., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 123, 644 (1968).
Han, J., and Calvin, M., Proc. US Nat. Acad. Sci., 64, 436 (1969).
Schubert, K., Rose, G., Wachtel, H., Horhold, C., and Ikekawa, N., Europ. J. Biochem., 5, 246 (1968).
Schubert, K., Rose, G., and Horhold, C., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 137, 168 (1967).
de Souza, N. J., and Nes, W. R., Science, 162, 363 (1968).
Reitz, R. C., and Hamilton, J. G., Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 25, 401 (1968).
Stanier, R. Y., Organisation and Control in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells, 1, Twentieth Symp. Soc. Gen. Microbiol. (Cambridge University Press, 1970).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
BIRD, C., LYNCH, J., PIRT, F. et al. Steroids and Squalene in Methylococcus capsulatus grown on Methane. Nature 230, 473–474 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/230473a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/230473a0
This article is cited by
-
Squalene hopene cyclases and oxido squalene cyclases: potential targets for regulating cyclisation reactions
Biotechnology Letters (2023)
-
Unravelling the role of transient redox partner complexes in P450 electron transfer mechanics
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Organic geochemical characteristics of Eocene crude oils from Zhanhua Depression, Bohai Bay Basin, China
Acta Geochimica (2020)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.