This study is aimed at characterizing metabolites from Neoporphyra dentata and Neopyropia yezoensis , two laver species primarily cultivated in Korea. Untargeted metabolite analysis was conducted using ultraperformance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTOF‐MS), leading to the identification of 63 metabolites. These included 10 amino acids and their derivatives, two organic acids, seven mycosporine‐like amino acids (MAAs), 10 nucleic acid–related compounds, 24 phospholipids, three betaine lipids, two glycolipids, one fatty acid, and four other compounds (isethionic acid, glycerophosphoglycerol, galactosylglycerol, and phycoerythrobilin). Multivariate analysis indicated that 24 significantly different metabolites were identified between the two laver species. Of these, MAAs and betaine lipids exhibited the most pronounced differences . N. dentata exhibited higher levels of shinorine (4.41‐fold), porphyra‐334 (1.24‐fold), and mycosporine‐glycine‐alanine (5.95‐fold) than N. yezoensis , whereas N. yezoensis had significantly higher levels of palythine (3.00‐fold), asterina‐330 (3.52‐fold), and aplysiapalythine B (14.18‐fold). Notably, monoacylglycerol‐trimethylhomoserine (MGTS) 18:3, MGTS 16:0, and MGTS 18:1 were detected only in N. dentata , indicating that they may be potential chemotaxonomic markers for identifying this species. These findings offer valuable metabolic insights that may assist in taxonomic classification in conjunction with genomic analysis and contribute to the selection and development of high value–added laver species.
Song et al. (Thu,) studied this question.