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Lipid composition and partitioning of deepwater chondrichthyans: inferences of feeding ecology and distribution

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Abstract

The composition of lipids and fatty acids was determined for the livers, muscle, pancreas, kidney and stomach fluids of deepwater chondrichthyan species (including 11 squaliformes, 3 chimaeriformes, 1 hexanchiforme and 3 carcharhiniformes) caught as bycatch from continental waters off south-eastern Australia. The lipid class, fatty acid and fatty alcohol composition differed markedly in each tissue and in each species. The lipid and fatty acid composition of large, lipid-rich (38–70% wet weight, ww) livers demonstrated the multifunctional role of this organ in: lipid distribution, storage and biosynthesis, and buoyancy regulation. In the liver, the importance of certain lipids (including squalene, diacylglyceryl ethers, triacylglycerols and to a lesser extent wax esters) as mediators of buoyancy varied according to lifestyle and habitat. Less variability was observed in the muscle profiles, characterized by low lipid content (<1.0% ww) and high relative levels of polar lipids (>70%). The lipid and fatty acid profiles of the kidney and pancreas showed the highest intraspecific variability, suggesting these organs also have complex roles in lipid storage and metabolism. Overall intra- and interspecific differences in the tissue fatty acid profiles could be related to differences in a number of factors including phylogeny, habitat (depth), buoyancy regulation and diet and presumably also reflect different ecological roles. The lipid and fatty acid profiles are the first published for Rhinochimaera pacifica, Chimaera lignaria and Figaro boardmani and the first to demonstrate interspecific variation in lipid profiles of various tissues of deepwater chondrichthyans. The application of multivariate analysis to lipid class and fatty acid tissue profiles in chondrichthyans inferred dietary differences and metabolic preferences between species and habitats. These results have important implications for the future use of fatty acids as dietary tracers in chondrichthyan research.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the captain and crew of Adriatic Pearl, Saxon Onwards, Diana and Saxon Progress for sample collection and co-operation. We also thank Martin Graeve, Dieter Janssen and Gerhard Kattner for their assistance with HPLC and TLC-FID analysis, undertaken at AWI Laboratories, Bremerhaven. Daniel Holdsworth maintained the GC–MS. We thank Jeff Drazen, Myron Peck and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was supported by a postgraduate scholarship through the University of Tasmania, Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMAS, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Heidi Pethybridge, Patti Virtue & Peter Nichols

  2. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia

    Heidi Pethybridge, Ross Daley & Peter Nichols

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  1. Heidi Pethybridge
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  2. Ross Daley
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  3. Patti Virtue
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  4. Peter Nichols
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Correspondence to Heidi Pethybridge.

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Communicated by M. A. Peck.

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Pethybridge, H., Daley, R., Virtue, P. et al. Lipid composition and partitioning of deepwater chondrichthyans: inferences of feeding ecology and distribution. Mar Biol 157, 1367–1384 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1416-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1416-6

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