Biosynthesis and Composition of Sterols in Annelida - I. Investigations On Some Polychaetes

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Abstract
Our knowledge about sterols and sterol metabolism in invertebrates has increased very rapidly in the last decade. However, data concern- ing Annelida are still scant and the picture of sterol metabolism in this phylum is very fragmentary. DALES, in his review on the energy metabolism in annelids (1969), points to the high content of sterols and sterolesters in the oil of these animals and mentions that this phenomenon is unexplained. The com- position of the sterol mixtures present in annelids is almost completely unknown. KARNOVSKY, reviewing lipid components and metabolism of annelids (1969), and LAVERACK (1963) in his monograph on the physiology of earthworms, deal very summirely with the sterols in annelids. Data can be summarized as follows. DOREE (1909) and DE WAELE (1930) showed that Lumbricus terrestris contained cholesterol as the major sterol. Accord- ing to BocK & WETTER (1938) cholesterol was accompanied by as much as 20% of ergosterol and some other unidentified sterols. NAYA & KOTAKE (1967), in studying Lumbricus spenser, found that its sterols consisted of cholesterol (80%) and brassicasterol (20%). D 5,7 Sterols could not be observed in fresh animals, but were present in dried ones to an amount of 1.7%. The composition of the sterols from the sterol- esters was somewhat different as cholesterol and brassicasterol made up here 60% and 40% respectively.

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