Comparison of fatty acid compositions of azooxanthellate Dendronephthya and zooxanthellate soft coral species

Ten zooxanthellae-free Dendronephthya species , twelve zooxanthellate soft coral species of the genera Sarcophyton, Lobophytum, Cladiella, Lytophyton, Cespitularia, and Clavularia, and the hermatypic coral Caulastrea tumida were examined for the first time to elucidate the fatty acid (FA) composition of total lipids. In Dendronephthya species, the main FAs were 20:4n-6, 24:5n-6, 16:0, 18:0, 7-Me-16:1n-10, and 24:6n-3 which amounted on the average to 26.0, 12.7, 12.1, 6.0, 4.8, and 4.0% of the total FA contents, respectively. For zooxanthellate soft corals, the main FAs were 16:0 (25.7%), 20:4n-6 (18.2%), 24:5n-6 (6.2%), and 18:4n-3 (5.6%), as well as 16:2n-7, which amounted up to 11.8% in Sarcophyton aff. crassum. Corals with zooxanthellae had low contents of 24:6n-3. The significant difference ( p < 0.01) between azooxanthellate and zooxanthellate soft corals was indicated only for 12 of 46 FAs determined. The principal components analysis confirmed that 7-Me-16:1n-10, 17:0, 18:4n-3, 18:1n-7, 20:4n-6, 22:5n-6, 24:5n-6, and 24:6n-3 are useful for chemotaxonomy of Dendronephthya. The azooxanthellate soft corals studied were distinguished by the absence of significant depth-dependent and species-specific variations of FA composition, low content of 16:2n-7, an increased proportion of bacterial FAs, predominance of n-6 FAs connected with active preying, and a high ability for biosynthesis of tetracosapolyenoic FAs.