Chemical Characterization of Lipophilic Constituents in the Skin of Migratory Adult Sea Lamprey from the Great Lakes Region

PLoS One. 2016 Dec 19;11(12):e0168609. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168609. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The sea lamprey (Petromzons marinus) is an invasive ectoparasite of large-bodied fishes that adversely affects the fishing industry and ecology of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Lipid content in the whole sea lamprey and muscles, liver and kidney of metamorphosing larval stages has been reported. Similarly, the fatty acid profile of the rope tissues of sexually-mature male sea lampreys has also been reported. The average body weight of a sub-adult migratory sea lamprey is 250 g, which includes 14.4% skin (36 g). Our preliminary extraction data of an adult sea lamprey skin revealed that it contained approximately 8.5% of lipophilic compounds. Lamprey skin is home to a naturally aversive compound (an alarm cue) that is being developed into a repellent for use in pest management. As part of an ongoing investigation to identify the chemical structure of the sea lamprey alarm cue, we extracted the skin with water and methanol, respectively. The methanolic extract (1.55%) contained exclusively lipophilic compounds and did not include the alarm cue. We chemically characterized all compounds present in the methanolic extract as cholesterol esters (CE), tri- and di-glycerides (TG and DG), cholesterol, free fatty acids (FFA) and minor amounts of plasticizers. The free fatty acids fraction was composed of saturated (41.8%), monounsaturated (40.7%) and polyunsaturated (17.4%) fatty acids, respectively. The plasticizers characterized were phthalate and benzoate and found to be 0.95 mg and 2.54 mg, respectively, per adult sea lamprey skin. This is the first report of the chemical characterization of all the lipophilic constituents in the skin of sub-adult migratory sea lamprey. The CEs isolated and characterized from sea lamprey skin are also for the first time.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Fatty Acids / chemistry
  • Fatty Acids / metabolism*
  • Great Lakes Region
  • Introduced Species*
  • Lampreys / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Skin / chemistry
  • Skin / metabolism*

Substances

  • Fatty Acids

Grants and funding

This research is a contribution from Michigan State University AgBioResearch and funded by the Great Lake Fisheries Commission (GLFC) under the contract 2016-NAI-54051. The NMR data were obtained on instrumentation that was purchased, in part, with the funds from NIH grant no. 1-S10-RR04750, NSF grant no. CHE-88-00770, and NSF grant no. CHE-92-13241. MS data were obtained at the Michigan State University Mass Spectrometry Facility, which is supported, in part, by a grant (DRR-00480) from the Biotechnology Research Technology Program, National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.