Tropical bat as mammalian model for skin carotenoid metabolism.
Animals cannot synthesize carotenoid pigments de novo, and must consume them in their diet. Most mammals, including humans, are indiscriminate accumulators of carotenoids but inefficiently distribute them to some tissues and organs, such as skin. This limits the potential capacity of these organisms to benefit from the antioxidant and immunostimulatory functions that carotenoids fulfill. Indeed, to date, no mammal has been known to have evolved physiological mechanisms to incorporate and deposit carotenoids in the skin or hair, and mammals have therefore been assumed to rely entirely on other pigments such as melanins to color their integument. Here we use high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in combination with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-TOF/MS) to show that the frugivorous Honduran white bat Ectophylla alba colors its skin bright yellow with the deposition of the xanthophyll lutein. The Honduran white bat is thus a mammalian model that may help developing strategies to improve the assimilation of lutein in humans to avoid macular degeneration. This represents a change of paradigm in animal physiology showing that some mammals actually have the capacity to accumulate dietary carotenoids in the integument. In addition, we have also discovered that the majority of the lutein in the skin of Honduran white bats is present in esterified form with fatty acids, thereby permitting longer-lasting coloration and suggesting bright color traits may have an overlooked role in the visual communication of bats.
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Doñana Biological Station-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), 41092 Sevilla, Spain; galvan@ebd.csic.es.
Ismael
I
Galván
Department of Food Phytochemistry, Instituto de la Grasa-CSIC, 41013 Sevilla, Spain;
Juan
J
Garrido-Fernández
Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Instituto de la Grasa-CSIC, 41013 Sevilla, Spain;
José
J
Ríos
Department of Food Phytochemistry, Instituto de la Grasa-CSIC, 41013 Sevilla, Spain;
Antonio
A
Pérez-Gálvez
School of Biology, University of Costa Rica, 2060 San José, Costa Rica.
Bernal
B
Rodríguez-Herrera
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Doñana Biological Station-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), 41092 Sevilla, Spain;
Juan José
0000-0002-8697-5647
JJ
Negro
D000818:Animals; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000378:metabolism*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008954:Models, Biological; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D014329:Tropical Climate
D002338:Carotenoids
bats; carotenoids; macular degeneration; skin coloration