Abstract
Marine invertebrates are a paraphyletic group that comprises more than 90% of all marine animal species. Lipids form the structural basis of cell membranes, are utilized as an energy reserve by all marine invertebrates, and are, therefore, considered important indicators of their ecology and biochemistry. The nutritional value of commercial invertebrates directly depends on their lipid composition. The lipid classes and fatty acids of marine invertebrates have been studied in detail, but data on their lipidomes (the profiles of all lipid molecules) remain very limited. To date, lipidomes or their parts are known only for a few species of mollusks, coral polyps, ascidians, jellyfish, sea anemones, sponges, sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, crabs, copepods, shrimp, and squid. This paper reviews various features of the lipid molecular species of these animals. The results of the application of the lipidomic approach in ecology, embryology, physiology, lipid biosynthesis, and in studies on the nutritional value of marine invertebrates are also discussed. The possible applications of lipidomics in the study of marine invertebrates are considered.
Highlights
Invertebrates have not been recognized as an actual taxon since this group includes all animals that do not have a spine and that were placed in it by the so-called residual principle
There are several definitions of “lipids”, but we focus mainly on fatty acids (FAs) and lipids with fatty acyl groups such as wax esters (WEs), triacylglycerols (TGs), monoalkyldiacylglycerols or diacylglycerol ethers (DAGEs), glycerophospholipids (GPLs), and sphingolipids
We suggest that lipidomic analyses are very informative in investigations of embryogenesis in marine invertebrates
Summary
Invertebrates have not been recognized as an actual taxon since this group includes all animals that do not have a spine and that were placed in it by the so-called residual principle. Due to the rapid development of thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography on capillary columns coupled with mass spectrometric detectors, high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance, and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography, detailed information on the lipid class composition and FA composition of total lipids/lipid classes of marine invertebrates has become increasingly available, for the order/family level and for the genus/species level. This classic lipidology deals with integral FA and lipid data because each lipid class consists of hundreds of lipid molecules, and total FAs are obtained through hydrolysis of thousands of lipid molecules.
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