Lipidomic Profiling during Early Sea Urchin Development

Abstract

Lipidomics, a branch of metabolomics, is a systems-based study of all lipids, the molecules with which they interact, and their function within the cell. Lipids play an essential role during sea urchin development not only as an energy source but also as a fundamental nutrient. The sea urchin has been used for many years as a research model to study embryonic development. Here, we investigated the total phospholipid composition in sea urchin Strongylocentrotus nudus embryos at different stages of development. Phosphatidylchoiline presented greater content than other lipids in the time course of development. The level of phosphatidylchoiline and phosphatidylinositol decreased during embryonic development, whereas the phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylserine and phosphtidylethanolamine showed no significant changes. Comparasion of data from blastulra with pluteus showed that total signal decreased by 59.3% in phosphatidylchoiline, by 62.7% in phosphatidylinositol. The results suggest lipid profile from a crude lipid extract can be used to monitor developmental changes of sea urchin.