Upton Cassandra, Prinsloo Gerhard, Steenkamp Paul, Okpeku Moses
Discipline of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Department of Agriculture and Animal Health, University of South Africa (UNISA), Florida Campus, FL 1710, South Africa.
Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2025 May 14;27:2661-2674. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2025.05.012. eCollection 2025.
Sea cucumbers, marine invertebrates increasingly recognised for their valuable biomolecules, are in growing demand due to the rising preference for marine products as safer, less toxic, and environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic or terrestrial counterparts. Metabolomics analysis provides a comprehensive approach for investigating the metabolic dynamics of marine organisms, enabling the discovery of their nutritional and biochemical potential. This study aimed to perform an untargeted metabolomics analysis of body tissue and crude storage-ethanol extracts using H NMR. Additionally, full-scan UPLC-QTOF-MS was used to confirm the NMR-metabolomics annotation and to provide more information on the chemical profile of . Both the analytical techniques were used to assess the extent of metabolite leaching during solvent storage and its methodological implications for compound profiling. The analysis revealed distinct metabolite patterns between the tissue and extract, particularly for amino acids, triterpene glycosides, aliphatic organosulphates, and carboxylic acids. Overall, both the body tissue and storing-ethanol extracts demonstrated high metabolite potential and variability, emphasising the role of solvent storage in influencing metabolic profiles. These findings suggest that the chemical composition of sea cucumber samples can be significantly impacted by storage conditions, which must be carefully considered during metabolite profiling. Further research is warranted to elucidate the metabolic pathways of and to expand our understanding of sea cucumbers more broadly. This study contributes to the growing field of marine metabolomics and establishes a foundation for future research on a wider range of lesser-studied, potentially endemic sea cucumber species.
海参作为一种海洋无脊椎动物,因其具有重要的生物分子而日益受到认可。由于人们越来越倾向于选择海产品作为合成品或陆生同类产品的更安全、毒性更小且环境友好的替代品,对海参的需求也在不断增加。代谢组学分析为研究海洋生物的代谢动态提供了一种全面的方法,有助于发现它们的营养和生化潜力。本研究旨在利用核磁共振氢谱对海参的身体组织和粗制乙醇提取物进行非靶向代谢组学分析。此外,还使用全扫描超高效液相色谱-四极杆飞行时间质谱来确认核磁共振代谢组学的注释,并提供更多关于海参化学特征的信息。这两种分析技术都用于评估溶剂储存过程中代谢物的浸出程度及其对化合物分析的方法学影响。分析揭示了组织和提取物之间不同的代谢物模式,特别是在氨基酸、三萜糖苷、脂肪族有机硫酸盐和羧酸方面。总体而言,身体组织和乙醇提取物都显示出较高的代谢物潜力和变异性,强调了溶剂储存对代谢谱的影响作用。这些发现表明,海参样品的化学成分可能会受到储存条件的显著影响,在代谢物分析过程中必须仔细考虑这一点。有必要进行进一步的研究以阐明海参的代谢途径,并更广泛地扩展我们对海参的理解。本研究为海洋代谢组学这一不断发展的领域做出了贡献,并为未来对更多研究较少、可能为地方特有的海参物种的研究奠定了基础。