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Fatty acid composition in the white muscle of Cottoidei fishes of Lake Baikal reflects their habitat depth

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Abstract

Lake Baikal is a unique freshwater environment with maximum depths over 1600 m. The high water pressure at the lakebed strengthens the solidifying effect of low water temperature on animal tissue lipids, and thus the effective temperatures in the depths of the lake equal subzero temperatures in shallow waters. Cottoidei species has colonized the different water layers of the lake, and developed different ecology and physiology reflected in their tissue biochemistry. We studied by gas chromatography the composition of fatty acids (FAs), largely responsible for tissue lipid physical properties, in the white muscle tissue of 13 species of the Cottoidei fish; five benthic abyssal, six benthic eurybathic and two benthopelagic species. The FA profiles reflected habitat depth. The muscles of the deepest living species contained little polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs) and were instead rich in monounsaturated FAs (MUFAs), which may be due to occasional weak food web links to the PUFA-rich primary producers of the photic water layer, high MUFA supply from their benthic diet, and conversion of saturated FAs (SFAs) to MUFAs in the tissues of the fish. Despite the MUFA percentage among the abyssal species reached even 50% (by weight) of total FAs, the PUFA percentage still remained above 20% in every species. The muscle MUFA/SFA ratio correlated negatively with the PUFA content of the fish muscle, suggesting viscosity control integrating the fluidity contributions from the dietary PUFAs and potentially endogenous MUFAs.

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Acknowledgements

Lake Baikal Protection Fund is gratefully acknowledged for organizing the international research expedition “Mirs on Lake Baikal” during 2008-2010. This study was supported by the Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Presidium (V.46.5.2; 2013-2016) and was funded by Russian Fundamental Research Fund (14-05-00516 А; 2014-2016). Assistance of Melissa Westberg in the statistical analyses is highly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Baikal Institute of Nature Management, Ulan-Ude, Russia

    Larisa D. Radnaeva, Dmitry V. Popov & Selmeg V. Bazarsadueva

  2. Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Russia

    Larisa D. Radnaeva, Dmitry V. Popov & Selmeg V. Bazarsadueva

  3. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Otto Grahl-Nielsen

  4. Limnological Institute SB RAS, Irkutsk, Russia

    Igor V. Khanaev

  5. Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Reijo Käkelä

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  1. Larisa D. Radnaeva
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  2. Dmitry V. Popov
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  3. Otto Grahl-Nielsen
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  4. Igor V. Khanaev
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  5. Selmeg V. Bazarsadueva
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  6. Reijo Käkelä
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Correspondence to Larisa D. Radnaeva.

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Radnaeva, L.D., Popov, D.V., Grahl-Nielsen, O. et al. Fatty acid composition in the white muscle of Cottoidei fishes of Lake Baikal reflects their habitat depth. Environ Biol Fish 100, 1623–1641 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-017-0670-6

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