TITLE
Unraveling the lipidome of Pavlova gyrans, a natural reservoir of bioactive lipids for biotechnological applications
JOURNAL
Journal of Applied Phycology
AUTHORS
Tiago Conde, Diana Lopes, Marisa Pinho, Tânia Melo, Natacha Coelho, Alexandre M. C. Rodrigues, Hugo Pereira, Pedro Domingues & Rosário Domingues
ABSTRACT
The high demand for natural bioactive compounds has spurred interest in marine environments as a source of functional ingredients. Pavlova gyrans is a haptophyte microalga characterized by a high amount of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), often found esterified to neutral and polar lipids, the latter possessing nutritional and bioactive properties. However, they are still little investigated in Pavlova species. In this work, we characterized the lipidome of P. gyrans using reverse-phase liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry, the FA profiling by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and assessed the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential of lipid extracts. The lipid content in P. gyrans was 21.8 ± 1.06 mg (100 mg)−1 biomass, while analysis of the FA profile revealed interesting amounts of eicosapentaenoic (8.1 ± 0.4 mg g−1 biomass) and docosahexaenoic (1.3 ± 0.1 mg g−1 biomass) acids. Lipidomics analysis of P. gyrans allowed the identification of 487 lipid species belonging to different classes of glycolipids (156), phospholipids (46), betaine lipids (111), sphingolipids (67), and neutral lipids (107). Glycolipids accounted for the most abundant lipid classes, highlighting the presence of sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, and digalactosyldiacylglycerol esterified to omega-3 PUFA, some previously reported with bioactive properties. Lipid extracts obtained from P. gyrans revealed a potent anti-inflammatory activity (98.9 ± 0.2%) at 100 µg mL−1, and antioxidant activity with EC50 values of 131.3 ± 3.8 µg mL−1 and 50.8 ± 3.4 µg mL−1 in the scavenging of DPPH and ABTS radicals, respectively. This work highlights P. gyrans as a new source of bioactive polar lipids with promising applications as functional ingredients for the food, feed, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries.