Biotransformation and assimilation of dietary lipids by Calanus feeding on a dinoflagellate

Abstract Stage V and adult females of the marine copepod Calanus helgolandicus were fed in the laboratory on the dinoflagellate Scrippsiella trochoidea at three concentrations calculated to represent pelagic ocean to ‘bloom’ conditions. The identification and quantification of sterols, fatty acids and alcohols present in the algal diet, copepods and their faecal pellets were then carried out using computerized gas chromatography- mass spectrometry (C-GC-MS). The grazing rates of animals were measured and the data then combined with those of lipid distributions in the diet and faecal pellets in order to determine quantitatively the fate of each lipid during its passage through the gut of Calanus . The results showed marked differences in the proportion of the three lipid classes removed, with highest values found for fatty acids and the lowest for sterols. Up to 97% of ingested algal fatty acids were removed by the copepod, with a preference towards the removal of polyunsaturated acids. Algal sterols were also removed by Calanus ; the percentage composition and concentration of sterols in faecal pellets differing from the algal diet at all three food levels. Evidence that the removal of lipids from the diet represented assimilation by the copepods was provided by the further finding that during the feeding period (20 hr) all three lipid classes increased in animal tissues. Quantitative measurements of individual sterols revealed that significant amounts of 4-methyl and 4-desmethyl sterols having the 8(14) and 17(20) unsaturation were removed at all dietary levels. In contrast, ring-saturated stanols were not removed and appear to pass through the gut quantitatively.