Effect of salinity on the fatty acid and triacylglycerol composition of five haptophyte algae from the genera Coccolithophora, Isochrysis and Prymnesium determined by LC-MS/APCI

Fatty acid composition in algae from the division Haptophyta was affected by the salinity of cultivation medium. The biosynthesis of C18 polyunsaturated triacylglycerols containing especially stearidonic and octadecapentaenoic acids was found to be very stereospecific and to depend on the salinity, asymmetric enantiomers predominating at low salinity and symmetric ones at high salinity.