Qi Liu¹, Takeshi Naganuma^1,

Metabolites in the edible tissues of meat, fat, and egg from a female Siberian sturgeon aged four years were analyzed by non-targeted metabolomics based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS). A total of 383 metabolites were detected, and 248 were assigned (annotated) to metabolite classes. The major shared metabolites among the edible tissues were a kaurenoic acid-derivative, oleic acid, choline, and L-carnitine. Although all 383 metabolites were present in all the tissues, their respective metabolomic profiles were separated by statistical analyses. A discriminant analysis screened tissue-specific biomarker metabolites, such as nicotinamide (a vitamin B3 vitamer) and taurine in meat; allopunrinol (a structural isomer of hypoxanthine), carnosine, inosine 5’-phosphate (inosine monophosphate, IMP), and L-(+)-lactic acid in fat; and N,N-dimethylsphingosine, 3-(2-hydroxyphenyl)propanate, L-glutamic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in egg. The biomarker metabolites were projected on metabolic maps to predict relevant metabolic pathways. Lipid and amino acid metabolisms were the major assigned (annotated) pathways, though not-assigned (not-annotated, NA) pathways were the most dominant. Integration of metabolomic profiles with multiple approaches and platforms will contribute to enhancing the utilization of processed byproducts of sturgeons and improving the breeding and husbandry of sturgeon stocks.

Non-targeted metabolomics, Acipenser baerii, discriminant analysis, metabolic pathways