Meeting Abstract
The pseudo-stalked tassel barnacle, Xenobalanus globicipitis, is an obligate commensal of cetaceans predominantly attaching to the fins and flippers of dolphins and other small whales in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. The life cycle and natural history of this species is little known as it occurs only sporadically across cetacean hosts making it difficult to study. This research explores the potential immune response of cetacean skin and plasma that may be induced by settlement of this barnacle. Plasma and non-invasive skin stripping discs collected from live dolphins during a health assessment in Sarasota, FL were extracted using traditional and novel lipid extraction techniques, respectively. The extracted samples were processed using an untargeted LC-MS/MS approach in positive, negative, and full scan modes and a list of lipids present was compiled for each sample using LipidMatch software. These lipid profiles will be assembled and compared between groups of dolphins with and without X. globicipitis attached during health screenings. lipid profiles will be analyzed using a PCA and significant lipids associated with an immune response will be identified. Any significant differences in lipid profiles of animals with and without barnacles attached would be indicative of a potential new health risk for dolphin populations and could open the door for further cetacean immunology studies.
