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Intramolecular stable carbon isotopic analysis of archaeal glycosyl tetraether lipids
Author(s) -
Lin YuShih,
Lipp Julius S.,
Yoshinaga Marcos Y.,
Lin ShaoHsuan,
Elvert Marcus,
Hinrichs KaiUwe
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.4707
Subject(s) - archaea , chemistry , glycosidic bond , glycerol , glycolipid , isotopes of carbon , biochemistry , chromatography , environmental chemistry , total organic carbon , enzyme , gene
Glycolipids are prominent constituents in the membranes of cells from all domains of life. For example, diglycosyl‐glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (2Gly‐GDGTs) are associated with methanotrophic ANME‐1 archaea and heterotrophic benthic archaea, two archaeal groups of global biogeochemical importance. The hydrophobic biphytane moieties of 2Gly‐GDGTs from these two uncultivated archaeal groups exhibit distinct carbon isotopic compositions. To explore whether the isotopic compositions of the sugar headgroups provide additional information on the metabolism of their producers, we developed a procedure to analyze the δ 13 C values of glycosidic headgroups. Successful determination was achieved by (1) monitoring the contamination from free sugars during lipid extraction and preparation, (2) optimizing the hydrolytic conditions for glycolipids, and (3) derivatizing the resulting sugars into aldononitrile acetate derivatives, which are stable enough to withstand a subsequent column purification step. First results of δ 13 C values of sugars cleaved from 2Gly‐GDGTs in two marine sediment samples, one containing predominantly ANME‐1 archaea and the other benthic archaea, were obtained and compared with the δ 13 C values of the corresponding biphytanes. In both samples the dominant sugar headgroups were enriched in 13 C relative to the corresponding major biphytane. This 13 C enrichment was significantly larger in the putative major glycolipids from ANME‐1 archaea (∼15‰) than in those from benthic archaea (<7‰). This method opens a new analytical window for the examination of carbon isotopic relationships between sugars and lipids in uncultivated organisms. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.