[Some peculiarities of brain phospholipids in deep sea fishes]

Total phospholipids (PL) as well as the content of various phospholipid classes and their fatty acid composition have been investigated in the brain of mesopelagic and abyssal marine teleosts. These species were compared to shallow water ones. The brain of deep sea fishes was found to be very poor in PL as compared to the brain of mesopelagic ans surface water species. No differences concerning the brain PL content were revealed between the two last mentioned groups. The relative content of separate PL classes was very similar in all the species studied irrespectively of the depth of their habitat. Peculiarities were found in fatty acid composition of individual PL from deep sea species as compared to surface ones. The deeper the habitat, the lower the content of saturated fatty acids, especially of the stearic acid. The lowest content of saturated fatty acids, maximum level of polyenoic fatty acids as well as some peculiarities in the relative content of particular fatty acids were found in the brain of ultraabyssal (6, 000 m) Leucicorus sp.