Publication: Discrimination of Diptera order insects based on their saturated cuticular hydrocarbon content using a new microextraction procedure and chromatographic analysis
Authors
León-Morán, L. O. ; Pastor-Belda, M. ; Viñas, P. ; Arroyo-Manzanares, N. ; García, M. D. ; Arnaldos Sanabria, María Isabel ; Campillo, N.
item.page.secondaryauthor
item.page.director
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
publication.page.editor
publication.page.department
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ay00214h
item.page.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2024. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. This document is the Submitted Published version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Analytical Methods. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ay00214h
Abstract
The nature and proportions of hydrocarbons in the cuticle of insects are characteristic of the species and age. Chemical analysis of cuticular hydrocarbons allows species discrimination, which is of great interest in the forensic field, where insects play a crucial role in estimating the minimum post-mortem interval. The objective of this work was the differentiation of Diptera order insects through their saturated cuticular hydrocarbon compositions (SCHCs). For this, specimens fixed in 70 : 30 ethanol : water, as recommended by the European Association for Forensic Entomology, were submitted to solid–liquid extraction followed by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction, providing preconcentration factors up to 76 for the SCHCs. The final organic extract was analysed by gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection (GC-FID), and GC coupled with mass spectrometry was applied to confirm the identity of the SCHCs. The analysed samples contained linear alkanes with the number of carbon atoms in the C9–C15 and C18–C36 ranges with concentrations between 0.1 and 125 ng g−1 . Chrysomya albiceps (in its larval stage) showed the highest number of analytes detected, with 21 compounds, while Lucilia sericata and Calliphora vicina the lowest, with only 3 alkanes. Non-supervised principal component analysis and supervised orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis were
performed and an optimal model to differentiate specimens according to their species was obtained. In
addition, statistically significant differences were observed in the concentrations of certain SCHCs within
the same species depending on the stage of development or the growth pattern of the insect.
publication.page.subject
Citation
Anal. Methods, 2024, 16, 2938–2947
item.page.embargo
Collections
Ir a Estadísticas
Este ítem está sujeto a una licencia Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0