High performance thin-layer chromatographic analysis of neutral lipids in the marine snails Ilyanassa obsoletus and Littorina littorea infected with larval trematodes

High performance thin-layer chromatography analysis was used to analyze neu tral lipids in the digestive gland-gonad (DGG) complex of the marine snails Ilyanassa obsoletus and Littorina littorea infected with larval trematodes . The results were compared with the DGGs of snails not infected with larva l trematodes. The most abundant neutral lipid in both infected and non-infe cted snails was triacylglycerols, with percentages ranging from 2.8% in I. obsoletus snails infected with unidentified armatae cercariae to 24.7% in I . obsoletus snails infected with Zoogonius rubellus. L. littorea snails inf ected with an unidentified armatae cercaria contained 6 to 7 times the amou nt of cholesteryl ester than uninfected snails or those infected with Crypt ocotyle lingua cercariae. I. obsoletus snails infected with Z, rubellus or an unidentified armatae cercaria contained 2 to 3 times more free sterol th an the uninfected controls. Larval trematode parasitism was found to alter the neutral lipid profiles of the marine snails I. obsoletus and L. littore a.