The composition of conjugated lipids obtained from the viscera of sea squirts (
Pyura michaelseni) was investigated. The sea squirts that belong to
Prochordata on animal classification, are very unique marine animal in either evolutional or biological aspects. The conjugated lipids were extracted with chloroform-methanol (2 : 1, vol/vol) after simple lipids were extracted with acetone, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE), phosphatidyl choline (PC), and sphingomyelin (SM) found as main phospholipids were separated and purified by silicic acid column chromatography, Iatrobeads column chromatography, DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, and preparative TLC. The purified phospholipids were identified by TLC, IR, analysis of their degradation products, and quantitative analysis of phosphorus and fatty acid ester.
The fatty acids composition of PE and PC were mainly composed of unsaturated acids (90%), in which polyunsaturated acids (C
20 : 5, C
22 : 6) were predominant. On the other hand, the fatty acids in SM contained hydroxy acids (h-FA) in addition to non-hydroxy acids (n-FA) (n-FA/h-FA, about 5/1) and both acids mainly composed of saturated acids, and main component of long chain bases was C
18-sphingadienine.
The facts that SM occurrs in a considerable amount and phosphonolipid is not found in sea squirts suggest the close relation between sea squirts and vertebrate.
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