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Distinctive medium chain wax esters, triglycerides, and diacyl glyceryl ethers in the head fats of the pacific beaked whale, Berardius bairdi
Author(s) -
Litchfield Carter,
Greenberg Anne J.,
Ackman R. G.,
Eaton C. A.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
lipids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.601
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1558-9307
pISSN - 0024-4201
DOI - 10.1007/bf02533840
Subject(s) - blubber , wax , wax ester , chemistry , cerebroside , fatty alcohol , chromatography , food science , organic chemistry , biochemistry , biology , ecology
Lipids were extracted from the mandibular fat body (jaw), the fatty forehead (melon), and the dorsal blubber of a Pacific beaked whale ( Berardius bairdi ) and separated into lipid classes by preparative thin layer chromatography. The head fats were mixtures of wax esters and triglycerides with a very small amount of diacyl glyceryl ether. The blubber fat contained 97% was ester and 3% triglyceride. Gas liquid chromatography (GLC) of the intact lipid classes indicated an unusually low C 26 –C 30 range for most of the jaw and melon wax esters compared to the more normal C 32 –C 40 molecules found in the blubber. Distinctive lower molecular weight C 24 –C 40 triglycerides occurred in the head fats vs. the usual C 44 –C 58 range in the blubber. Most diacyl glyceryl ethers were in the C 35 –C 46 range, below the molecular weight of hexadecyldipalmitoyl glyceryl ether (C 48 ). GLC of the derived fatty acid methyl esters showed that the lower molecular weight neutral lipids in the head fats were due to high levels of iso‐10∶0, n−10∶0, iso‐11∶0, iso‐12∶0, n−12∶0, and iso‐13∶0 acids. The wax ester fatty alcohols and the alkoxy chains of the glyceryl ethers were mostly the C 14 –C 20 chain lengths commonly observed in marine organisms. The distinctive medium chain neutral lipids in the jaw and melon fats of this whale may be related to the postulated acoustical role of these tissues in echolocation.