Solid phase extraction and metabolic profiling of exudates from living copepods

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1 University of Gothenburg, Department of Marine Sciences, Göteborg, Sweden
2 Technical University of Denmark, Centre for Ocean Life, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Copenhagen, Denmark
3 Friedrich Schiller University, Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Jena, Germany
4 University of Oslo, Department of Biosciences, Oslo, Norway
5 Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Biology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
6 University of Gothenburg, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Göteborg, Sweden
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.1397v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Ecology, Marine Biology
Keywords
Copepod exudate, Exometabolome, Metabolomics, Infochemicals, Temora longicornis
Copyright
© 2015 Selander et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Selander E, Heuschele J, Nylund GM, Pohnert G, Pavia H, Bjærke O, Pender-Healy LA, Tiselius P, Kiørboe T. 2015. Solid phase extraction and metabolic profiling of exudates from living copepods. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1397v1

Abstract

Copepods are ubiquitous in aquatic habitats. They exude bioactive compounds that mediate mate finding and induce defensive traits in prey organisms. Little is, however, known about the chemical nature of the copepod exometabolome that contributes to the chemical landscape in pelagic habitats. Here we describe the development of a closed loop solid phase extraction setup that allows for extraction of exuded metabolites from live copepods. We captured exudates from male and female Temora longicornis and analyzed the content with high resolution LC-MS. Chemometric methods revealed 87 compounds that constitute a specific chemical pattern either qualitatively or quantitatively indicating copepod presence. The majority of the compounds were present in both female and male exudates, but nine compounds were mainly or exclusively present in female exudates and hence potential pheromone candidates. Copepodamide G, known to induce defensive responses in phytoplankton, was among the ten compounds of highest relative abundance in both male and female extracts. The presence of copepodamide G shows that the method can be used to capture and analyze chemical signals from living source organisms. We conclude that solid phase extraction in combination with metabolic profiling of exudates is a useful tool to develop our understanding of the chemical interplay between pelagic organisms.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Alligned peak list showing intensities (peak area) of all measured compounds

Alligned peak list from mass spec data. Peak ID in column A, Compound specific mass@retentiontime in column B, and intensities of each compound for each sample in the following columns. below threshold entries denoted as "1".

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1397v1/supp-1