Ethylene and ethane production in an estuarine river: formation from the decomposition of polyunsaturated fatty acids

Abstract Ethylene and ethane concentration in an estuarine river (Georgia, USA) averaged 0.5 nM and 0.03 nM, respectively. Exposure of this water to sunlight for 8 h resulted in concentrations of ethylene and ethane increasing to 1.6 nM and 0.07 nM, respectively. Dark production of ethylene and ethane was very slow, with detectable increases occurring only after 24 h. Filtration (0.2 μm) of estuarine water before sunlight exposure reduced ethylene production four-fold; this finding indicates the importance of particulates in the production of ethylene. Previous work showed that diatoms can produce ethylene. Ethylene and ethane are among the products of the photo-decomposition of particulate and dissolved polyunsaturated fatty acids. Linolenic acid added to sunlit estuarine water resulted in the production of both ethylene and ethane. When estuarine water was sterilized before sunlight exposure, the concentrations of ethylene and ethane reached 4.3 nM and 0.09 nM, respectively. This increase in sterilized estuarine water was probably due to the decomposition of cellular polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are no longer protected against photolysis by protective enzyme systems found in living cells. We suggest that the ethylene produced in estuarine water is produced biotically by phytoplankton and abiotically by the photolysis of polyunsaturated lipids in particulate and dissolved organic matter. High concentrations of ethylene are predicted to be produced in areas with high primary productivity.

[1]  M. Goutx,et al.  Relationship between dissolved and particulate fatty acids and hydrocarbons, chlorophyll a and zooplankton biomass in Villefranche Bay, Mediterranean Sea , 1980 .

[2]  T. Ogawa,et al.  Purification and some properties of a novel ethylene-forming enzyme produced by penicillium digitatum , 1989 .

[3]  P. Novelli,et al.  Methane oxidation and methane fluxes in the ocean surface layer and deep anoxic waters , 1987, Nature.

[4]  C. H. Cheek,et al.  Methane supersaturation and ATP-zooplankton blooms in near-surface waters of the Western Mediterranean and the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean , 1979 .

[5]  M. Lieberman,et al.  Genesis and Biogenesis of Ethylene , 1964, Nature.

[6]  M. C. Kennicutt,et al.  Chemical and GC-MS characterization of marine particulate lipids , 1981 .

[7]  M. Lilley,et al.  Dissolved hydrogen and methane in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia , 1982 .

[8]  J. W. Swinnerton,et al.  Oceanic distribution of low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons. Baseline measurements , 1974 .

[9]  A. Girotti.  Mechanisms of lipid peroxidation. , 1985, Journal of free radicals in biology & medicine.

[10]  J. Brooks,et al.  Upper water column methane geochemistry in the eastern tropical North Pacific1 , 1983 .

[11]  T. Hintze,et al.  Monitoring lipid peroxidation by breath analysis: endogenous hydrocarbons and their metabolic elimination. , 1980, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.

[12]  R. Hodson,et al.  Degradation of phenol and chlorophenols by sunlight and microbes in estuarine water. , 1986, Environmental science & technology.

[13]  K. Sellner,et al.  The composition of particulate organic matter and biomass in the Peruvian upwelling region during ICANE 1977 (Nov. 14 - Dec. 2) , 1982 .

[14]  J. Whyte.  Biochemical composition and energy content of six species of phytoplankton used in mariculture of bivalves , 1987 .

[15]  C. Parrish.  Time series of particulate and dissolved lipid classes during spring phytoplankton blooms in Bedford Basin, a marine inlet , 1987 .

[16]  D. Schultz,et al.  Fatty acids in surface particulate matter from the north atlantic , 1972 .

[17]  Stuart G. Wakeham,et al.  Organic geochemistry of particulate matter in the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean: Implications for particle dynamics , 1988 .

[18]  R. Llop,et al.  The decoupling of hydrocarbons and fatty acids in the dissolved and particulate water phases of a deltaic environment , 1988 .

[19]  D. Schultz,et al.  Suspended material in Narragansett Bay: fatty acid and hydrocarbon composition , 1977 .

[20]  G. Eglinton,et al.  Long-chain alkenes and alkenones in the marine coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi , 1980 .

[21]  J. Folch,et al.  A simple method for the isolation and purification of total lipides from animal tissues. , 1957, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[22]  G. Kattner,et al.  Development of lipids during a spring plankton bloom in the northern North Sea: I. Particulate fatty acids , 1983 .

[23]  J. P. Riley,et al.  Component Fatty Acids of the Total Lipids of Some Marine Phytoplankton , 1969, Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

[24]  J. Lewin,et al.  Blooms of surf-zone diatoms along the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. X. Chemical composition of the surf diatom Chaetoceros armatum and its major herbivore, the Pacific razor clam Siliqua patula , 1979 .

[25]  T. Ludden,et al.  Exhaled alkanes as indices of in vivo lipid peroxidation. , 1989, Biochemical pharmacology.

[26]  M. Lieberman,et al.  Propanal May Be a Precursor of Ethylene in Metabolism , 1967, Science.

[27]  G. Eglinton,et al.  Sterol and fatty acid composition of four marine haptophycean algae , 1981, Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

[28]  N. Porter.  Mechanisms for the autoxidation of polyunsaturated lipids , 1986 .

[29]  C. Parrish,et al.  Particulate and dissolved lipid classes in cultures of Phaeodactylum tricornutum grown in cage culture turbidostats with a range of nitrogen supply rates , 1987 .

[30]  P. Mayzaud,et al.  Seasonal changes of the biochemical composition of marine particulate matter with special reference to fatty acids and sterols , 1989 .

[31]  V. Linnenbom,et al.  C1-C4hydrocarbons in the North and South Pacific , 1974 .

[32]  M. Tien,et al.  COMPARATIVE ASPECTS OF SEVERAL MODEL LIPID PEROXIDATION SYSTEMS , 1982 .

[33]  J. Brooks,et al.  Baseline concentrations of light hydrocarbons in Gulf of Mexico , 1973 .

[34]  J. Sargent,et al.  Formation and transfer of fatty acids in an enclosed marine food chain comprising phytoplankton, zooplankton and herring (Clupea harengus L.) larvae , 1989 .

[35]  G. Eglinton,et al.  Sterols and fatty acids of the marine diatom biddulphia sinensis , 1980 .

[36]  C. Yentsch,et al.  A method for the determination of phytoplankton chlorophyll and phaeophytin by fluorescence , 1963 .

[37]  D. Beach,et al.  The Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids of Marine and Freshwater Cryptomonads1 , 1970 .

[38]  J. Sargent,et al.  Wax esters in the marine environment — their occurrence, formation, transformation and ultimate fates , 1977 .

[39]  W. Seiler,et al.  Methane and hydrogen in seawater (Atlantic Ocean) , 1988 .

[40]  Richard F. Lee,et al.  Distribution of 21:6 hydrocarbon and its relationship to 22:6 fatty acid in algae , 1971 .

[41]  S. Wakeham,et al.  Diagenesis of organic matter in suspended particles and sediments in the Cariaco Trench , 1988 .

[42]  U. Brockmann,et al.  Particulate and dissolved fatty acids in an enclosure containing a unialgal Skeletonema costatum (Greve.) Cleve culture , 1990 .

[43]  Shangfa Yang,et al.  Ethylene biosynthesis: Identification of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid as an intermediate in the conversion of methionine to ethylene. , 1979, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[44]  G. Fuller,et al.  Fatty acids of the "red tide" organism, Gonyaulax polyedra. , 1966, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[45]  D. Beach,et al.  The polyunsaturated fatty acids of marine dinoflagellates. , 1970, The Journal of protozoology.

[46]  W. R. Morrison,et al.  PREPARATION OF FATTY ACID METHYL ESTERS AND DIMETHYLACETALS FROM LIPIDS WITH BORON FLUORIDE--METHANOL. , 1964, Journal of lipid research.

[47]  J. Mclachlan,et al.  Marine Phytoplankter Fatty Acids , 1968 .

[48]  B. Currie,et al.  Lipids as indicators of the origin of organic matter in fine marine particulate matter , 1988 .

[49]  E. Frankel.  Chemistry of free radical and singlet oxidation of lipids. , 1984, Progress in lipid research.

[50]  J. T. Conover,et al.  Slicks associated with Trichodesmium Blooms in the Sargasso Sea , 1965, Nature.

[51]  R. Schwarzenbach,et al.  FATTY ACID DYNAMICS IN THALASSIOSIRA PSEUDONANA (BACILLARIOPHYCEAE): IMPLICATIONS FOR P HYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY 1, 2, 3 , 1978 .

[52]  M. Lieberman.  Biosynthesis and Action of Ethylene , 1979 .

[53]  M. Blumer,et al.  A polyunsaturated hydrocarbon (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18-heneicosahexaene) in the marine food web , 1970 .

[54]  V. Linnenbom,et al.  C 1 -C 4 hydrocarbons in the North and South Pacific , 1974 .

[55]  G. Lambert,et al.  The marine source of C2-C6 aliphatic hydrocarbons , 1988 .

[56]  S. Henrichs,et al.  Chemical and microbiological studies of sea-surface films in the Southern Gulf of California and off the West Coast of Baja California , 1986 .

[57]  D. Menzel,et al.  The Measurement of Dissolved Organic and Particulate Carbon in SEAWATER1 , 1964 .