The sphingolipidome of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans

Victoria Hänel; Christian Pendleton; Michael Witting

doi:10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2019.04.009

The sphingolipidome of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans

Chem Phys Lipids. 2019 Aug:222:15-22. doi: 10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2019.04.009. Epub 2019 Apr 24.

Authors

Victoria Hänel¹, Christian Pendleton¹, Michael Witting²

Affiliations

¹ Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85674 Neuherberg, Germany.
² Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85674 Neuherberg, Germany; Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry, Technische Universität München, Maximus-von-Imhof-Forum 2, 85354 Freising, Germany. Electronic address: michael.witting@helmholtz-muenchen.de.

PMID: 31028715
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2019.04.009

Abstract

Sphingolipids are important lipids and integral members of membranes, where they form small microdomains called lipid rafts. These rafts are enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids, which influences biophysical properties. Interestingly, the membranes of the biomedical model organism Caenorhabditis elegans contain only low amounts of cholesterol. Sphingolipids in C. elegans are based on an unusual C17iso branched sphingoid base. In order to analyze and the sphingolipidome of C. elegans in more detail, we performed fractionation of lipid extracts and depletion of glycero- and glycerophospholipids together with in-depth analysis using UPLC-UHR-ToF-MS. In total we were able to detect 82 different sphingolipids from different classes, including several isomeric species.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; Lipidomics; Sphingolipids; UPLC-UHR-ToF-MS.

MeSH terms

Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans / chemistry
Caenorhabditis elegans / metabolism*
Models, Animal
Molecular Structure
Sphingolipids / analysis
Sphingolipids / biosynthesis*

Substances

Sphingolipids