Fractionation of soybean phospholipids by high-performance liquid chromatography with an evaporative light-scattering detector

Phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) from 23 soybean lines with a wide range of fatty acid compositions were resolved into seven fractions by highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Fraction identities were assigned from fatty acid compositions determined by gas chromatography (CC). A mass detector, i.e., an evaporative light-scattering detector, was used for HPLC quantification. The detector response was a power function of PC and PE concentrations. Various correction methods were applied to the detector response to obtain the best agreement between phospholipid (PL) fatty acid compositions determined by CC and that calculated from the corrected HPLC fraction percentages. The corrected HPLC fraction composition also was compared with that calculated from stereospecific distribution data using a 1-random-2-random hypothesis. Correlation between PL-fatty acid and HPLC-fraction percentages showed that genetic modification of soybean oil composition caused changes in PL species, which alter physical properties and may alter the physiological functions of PL in biomembranes.