Speciation of small molecules and inorganic ions in salmon egg cell cytoplasm by surfactant-mediated HPLC/ICP-MS.

The speciation of diverse elements in salmon egg cell cytoplasm was performed by a surfactant-mediated HPLC/ICP-MS hyphenated system. In the present experiment, an ODS column coated with CHAPS (3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate), which is a zwitterionic bile acid derivative, was employed as a surfactant-mediated separation column, and ICP-MS was used as an element-selective detector. The present surfactant-mediated HPLC allowed us to separate large and small molecules within 10 min; large molecules, such as proteins, were eluted within 2.5 min, while small molecules were eluted after 2.5 min, but within 10 min. In the present experiment, Fe, Cu, and Zn in egg cell cytoplasm were observed mostly in species with large molecular weights, indicating that these elements are contained as metalloproteins or metalloenzymes in egg cell cytoplasm. On the contrary, it was found that P, S, Mo, and halogens in egg cell cytoplasm were contained as small molecules or inorganic ions. The major species of P in egg cell cytoplasm was identified as the phosphate ion (PO4(3-)). Molybdenum, Cl, and Br in egg cell cytoplasm were molybdate (MoO4(2-), chloride (Cl-), and bromide (Br-) ions, respectively.