Our Ph.D. Students Carla Martins and Ana P. Rodrigo are leading authors of the paper just published in Scientific Reports entitled “The complexity of porphyrin-like pigments in a marine annelid sheds new light on haem metabolism in aquatic invertebrates”. The work, integrated within the marine biotechnology-oriented research project GreenTech, results from a major collaboration between UCIBIO and LAQV, was supervised by Pedro M. Costa and A. Jorge Parola, respectively. 

The research disclosed the existence of multiple, endogenous, porphyrinoid pigments resulting from haem breakdown in the bright-green marine Annelid Eulalia. Besides essential characterisation, an inter-organ comparison is provided as part of the understanding of the abundance, distribution, variability and even stability of pigments. The findings lead the way to further investigation on these biotechnologically-relevant substances and constitute a milestone in project GreenTech.

MARTINS, C., RODRIGO, A.P., CABRITA, L., HENRIQUES, P., PAROLA, A.J. & COSTA, P.M. (2019). The complexity of porphyrin-like pigments in a marine annelid sheds new light on haem metabolism in aquatic invertebrates. Scientific Reports 9, 12930 (doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49433-1)