The Annual Dynamics of Tissue Carotenoids in a Bivalve Mollusk Cerastoderma glaucum (Bruguière, 1789)
А. В. Бородина, P. Zadorozhny
Abstract
The annual dynamics of carotenoids was investigated in a bivalve mollusk Cerastoderma glaucum (Bruguière, 1789) and compared to that in another bivalve species, Anadara kagoshimensis (Tokunaga, 1906), both inhabiting the Black Sea’s Cossack Bay. In C. glaucum, the carotenoid spectrum was found to be represented by 11 free and 4 esterified forms. Of them, β-carotene, heteroxanthin and mactraxanthin, as well as esters of the latter two carotenoids, were present all the year through and accounted for 50–60% of total carotenoids, with mactraxanthin being species- specific. The other (minor) carotenoid fractions were present inconstantly being subject to seasonal fluctuations. In C. glaucum and A. kagoshimensis, despite similar feeding types and habitats, the qualitative carotenoid composition and patterns of seasonal changes in carotenoid levels were found to be considerably different. Distinctions were also revealed in carotenoid spectra of C. glaucum and other Cerastoderma species living in different habitats.