2019 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Intramolecular isotope analysis of lipids as a novel biological and environmental proxy
| Project/Area Number |
18H01326
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
ジルベルト アレキシー 東京工業大学, 理学院, 助教 (20726955)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
中川 麻悠子 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 特任助教 (20647664)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Lipids / 13C pattern / Biogeochemistry |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The goal of the project is to understand natural intramolecular 13C isotope patterns of lipids.
In order to be able to purify lipids in great quantity, we purchased a preparative HPLC and could separate lipids from different organisms (plants, bacteria, yeats). The samples were analyzed by isotopic 13C NMR.
The results show an alternation between odd and even positions throughout the chain, but to an extent that was unexpected from our current understanding. Our results thus show that other enzymes play important role in defining the isotope composition of lipids. This questions our understanding and interpretation of isotope composition of lipids in living organisms and also in sediments.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
It took time to implement our protocol for NMR measurements.
NMR requires high purity compounds for measurements. Therefore we had to adapt our protocol to get high purity compounds in high quantity. This was not trivial and required more time than expected.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We plan to measure lipids from more organisms which will require culture experiments.
In addition, we plan to use a chemical degradation method to cut some fatty acids into smaller fragments, which will give us an almost complete isotope pattern.
Eventually, in order to understand the isotope pattern of lipids, we plan to extract and measure acetyl-CoA from different organisms.
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Research Products
(3 results)
