Lipidomic analysis of psychrophilic yeasts cultivated at different temperatures

• Polar lipids from eight psychrophilic yeasts grown at 4–28 °C were analyzed.
• 17 classes of lipids were determined by LC-MS.
• Molecular species including their regioisomers were identified by LC-MS.
• A change in temperature brought about changes in molecular species of PC.

Analysis of polar lipids from eight psychrophilic yeasts (Cryptococcus victoriae, Cystofilobasidium capitatum, Holtermaniella wattica, Mrakiella aquatica, M. cryoconiti, Rhodotorula lignophila, Kondoa malvinella and Trichosporon aggtelekiense) grown at 4–28 °C by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography/high resolution electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry determined 17 classes of lipids and identified dozens of molecular species of phospholipids including their regioisomers. Most of the yeasts were able to grow over the whole temperature range, reaching the highest biomass at 4 or 10 °C. On temperature drop to 4 °C, all eight strains showed a significant decrease of MUFA and a simultaneous increase of PUFA such as α-linolenic acid, the content of which in the biomass reached up to 20%. We also found alterations in the proportions of individual phospholipids (PI, PE and PC), the PC/PE-ratio decreasing with decreasing temperature. With increasing temperature the content of PoO-PC rose while that of LL-PC decreased, the drop in the content of LL-PC being nearly 100-fold while the content of PoO-PC increased more than twice.A change in temperature brought about changes in molecular species of PC (molecular species PO-PC versus OP-PC) as well as PE, i.e. PO-PE and OP-PE. The phase transition temperature of PO-PC differs from OP-PC by 7 °C and the difference between PO-PE and OP-PE is some 10 °C; we thus assume that the cell compensates for the adverse temperature effect by changing the fatty acids in the sn-1 and sn-2 positions.