Parental nutritional programming and a reminder during juvenile stage affect growth, lipid metabolism and utilisation in later developmental stages of a marine teleost, the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

Abstract

Nutrition during periconception and early development can modulate metabolic routes to prepare the offspring for adverse conditions through a process known as nutritional programming. In gilthead sea bream, replacement of fish oil (FO) with linseed oil (LO) in broodstock diets improves growth in the 4-month-old offspring challenged with low-FO and low-fishmeal (FM) diets for 1 month. The present study further investigated the effects of broodstock feeding on the same offspring when they were 16 months old and were challenged for a second time with the low-FM and low-FO diet for 2 months. The results showed that replacement of parental moderate-FO feeding with LO, combined with juvenile feeding at 4 months old with low-FM and low-FO diets, significantly (P < 0·05) improved offspring growth and feed utilisation of low-FM/FO diets even when they were 16 months old: that is, when they were on the verge of their first reproductive season. Liver fatty acid composition was significantly affected by broodstock or reminder diets as well as by their interaction. Moreover, the reduction of long-chain PUFA and increase in α-linolenic acid and linoleic acid in broodstock diets lead to a significant down-regulation of hepatic lipoprotein lipase (P < 0·001) and elongation of very long-chain fatty acids protein 6 (P < 0·01). Besides, fatty acid desaturase 2 values were positively correlated to hepatic levels of 18 : 4n-3, 18 : 3n-6, 20 : 5n-3, 22 : 6n-3 and 22 : 5n-6. Thus, this study demonstrated the long-term nutritional programming of gilthead sea bream through broodstock feeding, the effect of feeding a 'reminder' diet during juvenile stages to improve utilisation of low-FM/FO diets and fish growth as well as the regulation of gene expression along the fish's life-cycle.

Replacing Dietary Fish Oil with Vegetable Oil Blends in Female Rainbow Trout Brood Stock Does Not Affect Breeding Quality

“…It has been proved in some aquatic animals, including fish, brood stock nutrition can provoke a permanent or long‐term physiological influence on the progeny by modulating metabolic routes and the offspring phenotype (Izquierdo et al, ; Morais et al, ; Otero‐Ferrer et al, ; Turkmen et al, ). In addition, the quality of egg profoundly depends on the fish brood stock nutrition, as it provides the necessary nutrients to be utilized during the embryonic and the yolk sac larvae development up to the start of the exogenous feeding (Fernández‐Palacios et al, ).…”

Can Intestinal Absorption of Dietary Protein Be Improved Through Early Exposure to Plant-Based Diet?

“…We postulate that fish that have a “better start” because of enhanced broodstock nutrition (fishmeal vs. SBM) might perform better regardless of the diet received at a later stage. In fact, the negative impact that broodstock nutrition might have on fish reproduction has been well reported [18,27,34–37]. For instance, soybean meal inclusion in goldfish ( Carrasius auratus ) diets disrupted sex hormone biosynthesis and caused a reduction in fertilization and hatching rates [37].…”

“…If digestive processes in broodstock are able to adapt to the plant-based diets through altered expression of specific genes associated with nutrient transportation or inflammatory response, then those adaptations could potentially be passed down to offspring through the epigenome. Studies testing the effects of feeding gilthead seabream ( Sparus aurata ) broodstock with low, moderate, and high fish oil (FO) and FM diets found that feeding moderate FO/FM levels improved growth and feeding efficiency of their respective offspring that were fed a low FO/FM diet [18]. That study utilized rapeseed meal and linseed oil as replacements for FO and FM, so it is important to determine if similar effects can be observed using SBM in different species.…”

Nutritional Programming Improves Dietary Plant Protein Utilization in Zebrafish Danio rerio

“…Nutritional programming has been shown to improve growth performance in rainbow trout [1], yellow perch Perca flavescens [6], and gilthead seabream Sparus aurata [4, 5]. Perera and Yufera [7] induced NP during the first three days after mouth opening in zebrafish but did not observe any differences in the growth rate during later feeding with soybean meal-based diet.…”

“…Izquierdo et al [4] found that it is possible to achieve improved growth of 4-month old gilthead seabream Sparus aurata juveniles fed low FM and low fish oil diets by previously exposing the broodstock of those fish to high vegetable-based oil feeds. Moreover, these authors later showed that the same fish at 16-month of age were still able to grow on low FM/fish oil diets better compared to control group suggesting positive long-term effect of NP on utilization of vegetable-based diet [5]. Finally, NP with soybean meal-based diets has been recently shown to successfully adapt yellow perch Perca flavenscens to utilize the same soybean meal diet during adult stages, leading to better growth compared to yellow perch that were not exposed to soybean meal diet during the early developmental stage [6].…”