Unusually high levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.pdf (235.02 kB)
Unusually high levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in whale sharks and reef manta rays
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 08:05 authored by Couturier, LIE, Rohner, CA, Richardson, AJ, Pierce, SJ, Marshall, AD, Jaine, FRA, Townsend, KA, Bennett, MB, Weeks, SJ, Peter NicholsFatty 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.
History
Publication title
LipidsVolume
48Issue
10Pagination
1029-1034ISSN
0024-4201Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
Amer Oil Chemists Soc A O C S PressPlace of publication
1608 Broadmoor Drive, Champaign, USA, Il, 61821-0489Rights statement
Copyright 2013 The Authors Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Repository Status
- Open