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Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry of Wax Esters

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Encyclopedia of Lipidomics

Synonyms

HPLC/MS of waxes

Definition

Wax monoesters are esters of long-chain monohydric alcohols with long-chain fatty acids. They are the most common representatives of wax esters, a group of nonpolar lipids with one or more ester moieties and long hydrocarbon chains. The term “wax” is derived from the Old English word “weax”, used for beeswax, and refers to oily or greasy heat-sensitive substances of natural origin. Wax monoesters have a variety of functions in living organisms, including surface protection (Kunst and Samuels 2003; Smith and Thiboutot 2008), energy storage (Lee et al. 2006; Weselake 2005), nest building, chemical communication (Rottler et al. 2013), or sound transmission (Varansi et al. 1975). Wax monoesters are biosynthesized in two steps. Fatty alcohols are generated from acyl-CoA substrates by the action of fatty acid reductases and they subsequently condensate with acyl-CoA in a wax ester synthesis-catalyzed step (Cheng and Russell 2004). Wax monoesters in the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mass Spectrometry Group, The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo nám. 2, CZ-166 10, Prague, Czech Republic

    Josef Cvačka & Vladimír Vrkoslav

Authors
  1. Josef Cvačka
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  2. Vladimír Vrkoslav
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Correspondence to Josef Cvačka .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Centre for Life Sciences, Singapore, Singapore

    Markus R. Wenk

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Cvačka, J., Vrkoslav, V. (2016). Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry of Wax Esters. In: Wenk, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lipidomics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_81-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_81-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7864-1

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