Lipidomics differentiation of soft-shelled turtle strains using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) was used as an accurate and sensitivity technique to separate and characterize the phospholipids in three strains of soft-shelled turtles. Under the optimized experimental parameters, the lipidomic profiles were successfully acquired, and a total of 55 phospholipid molecular species were identified. The principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to normalize the relative amounts of the phospholipid molecular species and revealed the differences among three strains of soft-shelled turtle, including Qingxi Huabie (QXH, GS-01-003-2008), Zhexin Wubie (ZXW, GS-02-005-2015), and Zhewu Erhao (ZWE, unregistered). Comparing with other methods, HILIC-MS is rapid, efficient and suitable in determining and visualizing phospholipids. This method also can be used for authenticating different strains of soft-shelled turtles.