Phospholipidomics quality evaluation of swimming crabs (Portunus trituberculatus) cultured with formulated feed, frozen trash fish, and mixed feed, a non-target approach by HILIC-MS.

Abstract Swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus, is popularly consumed because of its flavor and nutritional value. Herein, the crabs cultivated with formulated feed, frozen trash fish, and mixed feed were lipidomically analyzed by non-target HILIC-QTRAP/MS. The results showed that there were four phospholipid classes comprising 81 molecular species with plenty of polyunsaturated fatty acyl chains observed. The formulated feed group owned the highest content of phospholipids (332.91 μg·mg−1), followed by the frozen trash fish group (294.74 μg·mg−1) and mixed feed group (279.74 μg·mg−1). The effect of feeding modes was compared statistically, and the most contributing variables of m/z 802 (PC 34:2), m/z 846 (ether PC o-38:1), m/z 792 (PE 40:5), etc. were screened out and verified. The phospholipidomics results indicated that the formulated feed could replace frozen trash fish for the cultivation of P. trituberculatus.