In plants and algae, the glycerolipidome changes in response to environmental modifications. For instance, in phosphate starvation, phospholipids are degraded and replaced by nonphosphorus lipids and in nitrogen starvation, storage lipids accumulate. In addition to the well-known applications of oil crops for food, algae lipids are becoming a model for potential applications in health, biofuel, and green chemistry and are used as a platform for genetic engineering. It is therefore important to measure accurately and quickly the glycerolipid content in plants and algae. Here we describe the methods to extract the lipid, quantify the fatty acid amount of the lipid extract and to quantify the different lipid classes that are present in these samples.
Keywords: Extraction; Fatty acid methyl ester; Gas chromatography; HPLC; Lipid; Mass spectrometry; Quantification.