Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays

Fatty acid (FA) signature analysis has been increasingly used to assess dietary preferences and trophodynamics in marine animals. We investigated FA signatures of connective tissue of the whale shark Rhincodon typus and muscle tissue of the reef manta ray Manta alfredi. We found high levels of n-6 p...

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Autores principales: Couturier, L. I. E., Rohner, C. A., Richardson, A. J., Pierce, S. J., Marshall, A. D., Jaine, F. R. A., Townsend, K. A., Bennett, M. B., Weeks, S. J., Nichols, P. D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Materias:
Communication
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779593/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23975574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3829-8
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author Couturier, L. I. E.
Rohner, C. A.
Richardson, A. J.
Pierce, S. J.
Marshall, A. D.
Jaine, F. R. A.
Townsend, K. A.
Bennett, M. B.
Weeks, S. J.
Nichols, P. D.
author_facet Couturier, L. I. E.
Rohner, C. A.
Richardson, A. J.
Pierce, S. J.
Marshall, A. D.
Jaine, F. R. A.
Townsend, K. A.
Bennett, M. B.
Weeks, S. J.
Nichols, P. D.
author_sort Couturier, L. I. E.
collection PubMed
description Fatty acid (FA) signature analysis has been increasingly used to assess dietary preferences and trophodynamics in marine animals. We investigated FA signatures of connective tissue of the whale shark Rhincodon typus and muscle tissue of the reef manta ray Manta alfredi. We found high levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), dominated by arachidonic acid (20:4n-6; 12–17 % of total FA), and comparatively lower levels of the essential n-3 PUFA—eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3; ~1 %) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3; 3–10 %). Whale sharks and reef manta rays are regularly observed feeding on surface aggregations of coastal crustacean zooplankton during the day, which generally have FA profiles dominated by n-3 PUFA. The high levels of n-6 PUFA in both giant elasmobranchs raise new questions about the origin of their main food source.
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spelling pubmed-37795932013-09-25 Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays Couturier, L. I. E. Rohner, C. A. Richardson, A. J. Pierce, S. J. Marshall, A. D. Jaine, F. R. A. Townsend, K. A. Bennett, M. B. Weeks, S. J. Nichols, P. D. Lipids Communication Fatty acid (FA) signature analysis has been increasingly used to assess dietary preferences and trophodynamics in marine animals. We investigated FA signatures of connective tissue of the whale shark Rhincodon typus and muscle tissue of the reef manta ray Manta alfredi. We found high levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), dominated by arachidonic acid (20:4n-6; 12–17 % of total FA), and comparatively lower levels of the essential n-3 PUFA—eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3; ~1 %) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3; 3–10 %). Whale sharks and reef manta rays are regularly observed feeding on surface aggregations of coastal crustacean zooplankton during the day, which generally have FA profiles dominated by n-3 PUFA. The high levels of n-6 PUFA in both giant elasmobranchs raise new questions about the origin of their main food source. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2013-08-22 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC3779593/ /pubmed/23975574 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3829-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2013 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Communication
Couturier, L. I. E.
Rohner, C. A.
Richardson, A. J.
Pierce, S. J.
Marshall, A. D.
Jaine, F. R. A.
Townsend, K. A.
Bennett, M. B.
Weeks, S. J.
Nichols, P. D.
Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title_full Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title_fullStr Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title_full_unstemmed Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title_short Unusually High Levels of n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Whale Sharks and Reef Manta Rays
title_sort unusually high levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in whale sharks and reef manta rays
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779593/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23975574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3829-8
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