Untargeted lipidomics reveals metabolic responses to different dietary n-3 PUFA in juvenile swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus)

While tissue fatty acid compositions reflect that of the dietary lipid source, little information is available on how dietary oils modify lipid class and molecular species profiles in hepatopancreas of crustacean. Herein, an 8-week nutritional trial and untargeted lipidomic analysis were used to investigate the impacts of dietary n-3 PUFA lipid sources including fish oil, krill oil and linseed oil on the lipidomic characteristics of hepatopancreas of swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus). Dietary krill oil significantly increased distribution of 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 at sn-2 in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine compared to fish oil. Fish oil intake promoted the deposition of 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 at sn-1,2,3 in triglyceride compared to linseed oil, which significantly increased the specific accumulation of 18:3n-3 at sn-1,3 in triglyceride and sn-2 in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. The study revealed metabolic responses to different dietary n-3 PUFA in swimming crab, which provided novel insight into the lipid nutrition of crustacean.