Neutral non-glyceride lipids - waxes in the broadest sense - are major components of many marine animals from a single celled organisns, through higher invertebrates, to fishes and the mammalian toothed whales. It is estimated that the annual production of wax esters in just one group of organisms, the calanoid copepods, may approach three hundred million metric tons. These same organisms are the principal food of such commercially important fish as herrings, sardines, anchovies, and young salmon, as well as most of the major seabird species. Hence wax eters indirectly are of considerable importance to man, from both nutritional and economic standpoints. We have little knowledge on how wax eters are assimilated. The work proposed will elucidate the biomedical and physiological mechanisms responsible for this unique capacity to assimilate an otherwise refractory food source. The studies described here include both in vivo and in vitro (enzymatic) experimental approaches with both wild sea birds and domestic birds (ducks, chickens, turkeys, etc.).
