Unusual Occurrence of Diacyl Glyceryl Ethers in Liver Lipids from Two Species of Gonatid Squids

Abstract

The lipid compositions of the livers of two species of gonatid squids, Berryteuthis magister and Gonatopsis makko, caught in the Japan Sea, were investigated. The livers yielded 22.4% lipids for B. magister and 28.0% for G. makko, each of which contained an unusually high percentage of diacyl glyceryl ethers (49.1% and 69.5%, respectively) and small amounts of steryl esters (24.0% and 16.0%), triglycerides (7.1% and 0.9%) and phospholipids (8.6% and 3.5%). In the two species, the component glyceryl ethers were reasonably similar in composition, consisting mainly of saturates (64.6-70.1 %) and monoenes (27.7-33.0%) of 14–22 carbon atoms for the alkyl moiety. The principal components were as follows: 16: 0 (58.3-58.5%), 18:1 (23.2-27.7%), 18:0 (4.0-7.6%), and 20: 1 (3.4-4.1%), In both species, the fatty acid compositions of diacyl glyceryl ethers consisted predominantly of monoenes with 18: 1 acid (28.2-46.6%) as the main component. For B. magister, few differences were found in the percentages of the component fatty acids among the lipid classes of diacyl glyceryl ethers, steryl esters, triglycerides and phospholipids; and for G. makko few differences were found among diacyl glyceryl ethers, steryl esters and phospholipids. © 1985, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.