Abstract
Lipids are excellent biomarkers for assessing coral stress, although staghorn coral data (Acropora cervicornis) is lacking. Lipid extraction is the most critical step in lipidomic assessments, usually performed using carcinogenic solvents. Efficient alternative using less toxic methods, such as the BUME method using butanol and methanol as extraction solvents, have not been applied to coral lipidomics evaluations. Thus, we aimed to develop a lipidomic approach to identify important coral health biomarkers by comparing different solvent mixtures in staghorn corals. Total lipid extraction was equivalent for both tested methods, but due to its efficiency in extracting polar lipids, the BUME method was chosen. It was then applied to different coral masses (0.33–1.00 g), resulting in non-significant differences concerning number of lipid classes and compounds. Therefore, this method can be successfully applied to coral assessments in a climate change context, with the added benefit of low sample masses, lessening coral sampling impacts.
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Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1547798. This NSF Grant was awarded to Florida International University as part of the Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Program. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Thermo Scientific Corporation for providing analytical columns and the demo version of the Lipid Search software and from NSF grant IOS1810981 supporting coral sample collection. This is contribution number 996 from the Southeast Environmental Research Center in the Institute of Environment at Florida International University.
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Lugo Charriez, K., Soledade Lemos, L., Carrazana, Y. et al. Application of an Improved Chloroform-Free Lipid Extraction Method to Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) Lipidomics Assessments. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 107, 92–99 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-03078-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-03078-3