Analysis of lipid and fatty acid composition of three species of scorpions with relation to different organs

Abstract

Within arthropods most of the information related to the type of mobilization and storage of lipids is found in insects and crustaceans. Literature is scarce with relation to scorpions. This order is a remarkably important model of the biochemistry, since it is characterized as an animal with very primitive traits which have varied minimally through time. In the present study we characterize and compare lipids and fatty acids present in three species of scorpion: Timogenes elegans, Timogenes dorbignyi, and Brachistosternus ferrugineus, focusing the study on the main organs/tissues involved in the dynamics of lipids. As found in the fat body of insects, hepatopancreas of crustaceans and midgut diverticula of spiders, the hepatopancreas of the three species studied here turned out to be the organ of lipid storage (great quantity of triacylglycerides). With relation to the hemolymph and muscles, a great quantity of phospholipids was observed, which is possibly involved in membrane formation. It is important to highlight that unlike what happens in insects, in scorpions the main circulating energetic lipid is the triacylglyceride. This lipid is found in greater proportion in the hepatopancreas of females, surely for reproduction. The fatty acid of the different organs/tissues analyzed remained constant in the three species studied with certain characteristic patterns, thus observing saturated and unsaturated most abundant fatty acids of C16 and C18. Finally, it could be observed that in T. elegans, T. dorbignyi and B. ferrugineus scorpions, there is a lack of 20:4 that generates a special condition within fatty acids of arthropods.