Journal of Biochemistry Advance Access originally published online on July 7, 2006
Journal of Biochemistry 2006 140(2):247-253; doi:10.1093/jb/mvj145
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© 2006 The Japanese Biochemical Society.
Regular Paper |
A Novel Phosphatidylcholine Which Contains Pentadecanoic Acid at sn-1 and Docosahexaenoic Acid at sn-2 in Schizochytrium sp. F26-b
1 Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenviromental Sciences, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581; 2 Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, 1 Honjyo, Saga 840-8502; 3 Department of Biological Production and Enviromental Science, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192; and 4 Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel/Fax: +81-92-642-2898, E-mail: makotoi{at}agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3)containing phospholipids are a ubiquitous component of the central nervous system and retina, however their physiological and pharmacological functions have not been fully elucidated. Here, we report a novel DHA-containing phosphatidylcholine (PC) in a marine single cell eukaryote, Schizochytrium sp. F26-b. Interestingly, 31.8% of all the fatty acid in F26-b is DHA, which is incorporated into triacylglycerols and various phospholipids. In phospholipids, DHA was found to make up about 50% of total fatty acid. To identify phospholipid species containing DHA, the fraction of phospholipids from strain F26-b was subjected to normal phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It was found that DHA was incorporated into PC, lyso-PC, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylinositol. The major DHA-containing phospholipid was PC in which 32.5% of the fatty acid was DHA. The structure of PC was analyzed further by phospholipase A2 treatment, fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, and 1H- and 13C-NMR after purification of the PC with reverse phase HPLC. Collectively, it was clarified that the major PC contains pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) at sn-1 and DHA at sn-2; the systematic name of this novel PC is therefore "1-pentadecanoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine."