State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen, 361002, China.
College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361002, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 10;9(1):14545. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51117-9.
Seafood coloration is typically considered an indicator of quality and nutritional value by consumers. One such seafood is the Xishi abalone (Haliotis gigantea), which displays muscle color polymorphism wherein a small subset of individuals display orange coloration of muscles due to carotenoid enrichment. However, the metabolic basis for carotenoid accumulation has not been thoroughly investigated in marine mollusks. Here, GC-TOF-MS-based untargeted metabolite profiling was used to identify key pathways and metabolites involved in differential carotenoid accumulation in abalones with variable carotenoid contents. Cholesterol was the most statistically significant metabolite that differentiated abalones with orange muscles against those with common white muscles. This observation is likely due to the competitive interactions between cholesterol and carotenoids during cellular absorption. In addition, the accumulation of carotenoids was also related to fatty acid contents. Overall, this study indicates that metabolomics can reflect physiological changes in organisms and provides a useful framework for exploring the mechanisms underlying carotenoid accumulation in abalone types.
海鲜的颜色通常被消费者视为质量和营养价值的指标。西施舌（Haliotis gigantea）就是这样一种海鲜，它具有肌肉颜色多态性，一小部分个体由于类胡萝卜素的富集而显示出肌肉的橙色。然而，海洋软体动物中类胡萝卜素积累的代谢基础尚未得到彻底研究。在这里，基于 GC-TOF-MS 的非靶向代谢组学 profiling 用于鉴定关键途径和代谢物，这些途径和代谢物参与了具有不同类胡萝卜素含量的鲍鱼中类胡萝卜素积累的差异。胆固醇是区分橙色肌肉鲍鱼和普通白色肌肉鲍鱼的最显著的代谢物。这一观察结果可能是由于胆固醇和类胡萝卜素在细胞吸收过程中的竞争相互作用。此外，类胡萝卜素的积累也与脂肪酸含量有关。总的来说，这项研究表明代谢组学可以反映生物体的生理变化，并为探索鲍鱼类型中类胡萝卜素积累的机制提供了一个有用的框架。
