Distribution of lipids between the zooxanthellae and animal compartment in the symbiotic sea anemoneAnemonia viridis: Wax esters, triglycerides and fatty acids

Abstract

The temperate sea anemoneAnemonia viridis (Forskal) contained about 11% lipid on a dry weight basis when maintained at light levels of about 10µE m−2 s−1 and a temperature of 10°C. Aposymbiotic forms of the anemone had similar lipid levels. These values are very low compared with tropical symbiotic Anthozoa in which lipid levels constitute up to 50% of dry weight. In symbioticA. viridis, <6% of total lipid consisted of the storage lipids, wax esters and triglycerides. Most of the triglyceride was stored in the animal tissues rather than the zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae contained only small amounts of wax esters. An analysis was made of the wax ester, triglyceride and fatty acid composition of symbiotic anemones, isolated zooxanthellae and aposymbiotic anemones. Wax ester composition was similar in symbiotic and aposymbiotic forms. However, triglyceride composition differed. In particular trimyristin (C42) was found only within the symbiotic association. Fatty acids showed a high degree of unsaturation, and acids with both even and odd numbers of carbon atoms were found. The most abundant fatty acid was 16:0 in all samples, except for the total lipids from zooxanthellae in which the major fatty acid wastrans-18:1.