Application of lipidomics in bivalve aquaculture, a review

Bivalve production is a relevant aquaculture activity in Europe; however, it is not developing with same extents of other aquaculture sectors due to causes connected with regulation stringency, labour cost, space availability, habitat loss as well as variability in recruitment events, climate change and diseases. Understanding the physiology and nutritional requirements of bivalves during aquaculture activities might result beneficial to fuel up the development of the sector. Lipids are important molecules as they are relevant components of cellular membranes acting in several physiological processes like reproduction, growth, immunological responses and energy reserve. Nevertheless, lipid diversity is still poorly understood despite the research efforts of the last decades. Technological advancements provide tools to unveil such diversity. Lipidomics, a branch of metabolomics, is the science targeting the lipidome (e.g. the totality of biological lipids in an organism). In this review...