A method of analysis of pigments in copepods
Kaviyarasan, M.; Ananth, S.; Santhanam, P.; Pachiappan, P. (2019). A method of analysis of pigments in copepods, in: Santhanam, P. et al. Basic and applied zooplankton biology. pp. 363-365. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7953-5_16
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| Authors | | Top |
- Kaviyarasan, M.
- Ananth, S.
- Santhanam, P.
- Pachiappan, P.
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| Abstract |
Pigmentation in the animals generally aids in the sexual attraction of partners or camouflage to reduce the risk of predation, but in some planktonic crustaceans, pigments are used as a guard against harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation (Hansson 2000). Pigments occur almost in all phyla of marine organisms (Goodwin 1976) and are widely present in the zooplankton and micronekton (Cheeseman et al. 1967; Herring 1972). There are so many reports on zooplankton pigmentation, in which most of them focused on crustaceans (Herring 1968; Hairston 1979; Castillo et al. 1982). In marine pelagic food webs, copepods are the major producers of astaxanthin. Firstly, the most important function of astaxanthin in copepods is that it is an antioxidant for protecting lipids from peroxidation. Secondly, pigmentation and thereby photo protection against UV light have been suggested. Thirdly, it could be that astaxanthin esters, since they are lipids, serve as sources of metabolic energy, even if they contribute to only 2% of the total lipid content of a copepod body. In this chapter, some of the common techniques used for the extraction and analysis of pigments in copepods are elaborated. |
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