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Determination of Total Lipid, Lipid Classes, and Fatty Acids in Aquatic Samples

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Lipids in Freshwater Ecosystems

Abstract

The hydrophobic nature of lipids provides a convenient means of separating them from other compounds in an aqueous sample matrix. Extraction in nonpolar solvents is universally employed and is the basis of the operational definition of lipids. This approach is used routinely in algal biosynthetic studies in which the fate of a radiolabeled precursor is followed into the lipid pool. By adding 14C bicarbonate to a sample from the field (Wainman and Lean, 1992) or a culture (Rai, 1995) and then later extracting the sample with a water-immiscible organic solvent, the “lipid fraction of carbon fixation” (LFCF) can be determined (Wainman and Lean, 1992). By performing a chromatographic separation before counting, this procedure can be further refined to determine the subclasses in which the 4C ends up (Smith and D’ Souza, 1993). Subfractionation is important when a differentiation between allocation to lipid storage and membrane synthesis is required. The radiolabeling approach is convenient, sensitive, and not prone to contamination. However, many ecological studies are not amenable to this approach, and so chemical analysis of the constituents of lipid extracts has to be performed.

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Authors
  1. Christopher C. Parrish
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Water Research Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 3H5, Canada

    Michael T. Arts

  2. McMaster Midwifery Education Program, McMaster University, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 4A6, Canada

    Bruce C. Wainman

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Parrish, C.C. (1999). Determination of Total Lipid, Lipid Classes, and Fatty Acids in Aquatic Samples. In: Arts, M.T., Wainman, B.C. (eds) Lipids in Freshwater Ecosystems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0547-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0547-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6813-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0547-0

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