Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, can be regulated by nutrition and dietary factors. There has been a large increase in the use of sustainable plant-based protein sources in fish feed due to limitations of fishmeal resources, which are needed to sustain a rapidly growing aquaculture industry. With this major transition from marine ingredients to plant-based diets, fish are abruptly introduced to changes in dietary composition and exposed to a variety of phytochemicals, some of which known to cause epigenetic changes in mammals. However, the effect of plant ingredients on the epigenome of fish is barely understood. In the present study, the nutriepigenomic effects of the addition of pea, soy, and wheat gluten protein concentrate to aquafeeds were investigated using zebrafish as a model. A genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation patterns was performed by reduced representation bisulphite sequencing to examine global epigenetic alterations in the mid intestine after a 42-day feeding trial. We found that inclusion of 30% of wheat gluten, pea and soy protein concentrate in the diet induced epigenetic changes in the mid intestine of zebrafish. A large number of genes and intergenic regions were differentially methylated with plant-based diets. The genes concerned were related to immunity, NF-κB system, ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, MAPK pathway, and the antioxidant defence system. Epigenetic regulation of several biological processes, including neurogenesis, cell adhesion, response to stress and immunity was also observed. Ultimately, the observed epigenetic changes may enable zebrafish to rapidly regulate inflammation and maintain intestinal homoeostasis when fed plant protein-based diets.
This experiment was conducted to investigate total aromatic amino acid requirement of juvenile grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella. Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic semipurified diets containing casein and gelatin with graded level of phenylalanine (7.8, 11.1, 14.4, 17.6, 21.7, 24.9 g kg À1 DM) were formulated. Each diet was randomly assigned to triplicate group of 30 fish (3.58 AE 0.002 g, mean AE SEM) each tank for 8 weeks. The highest weight gain (WG, %), final body weight (g) and specific growth rate were recorded when phenylalanine level was 17.6 g kg À1 of the diet. Fish muscle protein content, protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio and alanine aminotransferase were significantly affected by dietary phenylalanine level. The polynomial regression calculated using WG and PER indicated that the optimal dietary total aromatic amino acid (phenylalanine + tyrosine) requirement for juvenile grass carp was 24.4 g kg À1 of the diet, corresponding to 65.9 g kg À1 of dietary protein.
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