Abstract
Digestion of the phaeophyte carotenoids fucoxanthin, violaxanthin and neoxanthin and the chlorophylls a and c by the phytophagous snail Littorina littorea was studied in feeding experiments. Gut-passage results in alterations of pigment composition: (i) Chlorophylls are rapidly turned into pheophytin and, to a lesser extent, into pheophorbide in the snails' foregut and digestive gland. (ii) The mono-epoxide pigments fucoxanthin and neoxanthin were not (or only negligibly) reduced in the digestive system. (iii) The di-epoxide violaxanthin was completely de-epoxidized and converted into zeaxanthin. This means that the cyanophyte marker zeaxanthin (3,3′-dihydroxy-β-β-carotene), analysed in sediment samples with possible phaephyte input, may derive from this source material as a r eduction product of violaxanthin. (iv) Absorption of algal pigments in the digestive system seems to be a function of the nutritional state of the animals. Prolonged periods of starvation result in a more efficient digestion of later ingested food material and a practically complete destruction of the algal pigments.
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