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
School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia,
Lipids. 2013 Oct;48(10):1029-34. doi: 10.1007/s11745-013-3829-8. Epub 2013 Aug 22.
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.
脂肪酸（FA）特征分析越来越多地用于评估海洋动物的饮食偏好和营养动力学。我们研究了鲸鲨（Rhincodon typus）结缔组织和礁蝠鲼（Manta alfredi）肌肉组织的FA特征。我们发现n-6多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）含量很高，以花生四烯酸（20:4n-6；占总FA的12-17%）为主，而必需的n-3 PUFA——二十碳五烯酸（20:5n-3；约1%）和二十二碳六烯酸（22:6n-3；3-10%）的含量相对较低。白天经常观察到鲸鲨和礁蝠鲼以沿海甲壳类浮游动物的表面聚集物为食，这些聚集物的FA谱通常以n-3 PUFA为主。这两种大型板鳃亚纲动物中n-6 PUFA的高含量对其主要食物来源的起源提出了新问题。
