Arsenic is present at nanomolar levels throughout the ocean, and microbes assimilate this potentially toxic element due to its similarity to inorganic phosphorus. Although dissolved arsenic has been a focus of several oceanographic studies, the size and chemical character of the particulate arsenic pool is poorly understood. We measured particulate arsenic in five samples from the open ocean and determined the contribution of arsenic-containing lipids to this pool. Here we show that the accumulation of arsenic into lipids is a widespread phenomenon in the surface ocean. Particulate arsenic concentrations were 15–42 pmol L⁻¹ with 7–20% of the particulate arsenic pool within arsenolipids. We found that arsenosugar phospholipids dominated the arsenolipid pools in our samples with a minor component of arsenohydrocarbons and other unidentified lipids. A significant portion of the arsenosugar phospholipids (up to 35%) was present as previously undescribed mixed acyl ether lipids, suggesting a bacterial source.

中文翻译：

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表层海洋中的多种含砷脂质

砷在整个海洋中以纳摩尔水平存在，由于它与无机磷相似，微生物会吸收这种潜在的有毒元素。尽管溶解的砷一直是几项海洋学研究的重点，但人们对颗粒状砷池的大小和化学特征知之甚少。我们测量了来自公海的五个样品中的颗粒砷，并确定了含砷脂质对该池的贡献。在这里，我们表明砷在脂质中的积累是海洋表层普遍存在的现象。颗粒砷浓度为 15–42 pmol L ^-1砷脂中有 7-20% 的颗粒砷池。我们发现，在我们的样品中，砷糖磷脂在砷脂池中占主导地位，其中少量的砷烃和其他未鉴定的脂质成分。很大一部分砷糖磷脂（高达 35%）以先前未描述的混合酰基醚脂质的形式存在，表明存在细菌来源。