Background: Soybean proteins is the most widely used alternative protein sources for fish meal in aquafeed. However, soybean meal (SBM) substitution imposes negative effects such as growth restriction and intestinal inflammation. Limited reports were concentrated on the metabolic alterations in fish.
Results: A ten-week feeding trial was conducted to examine the effect of dietary SBM substitution on growth performance, serum biochemistry and metabolism in hybrid sturgeon. It was showed that 25% SBM substitution produced the highest weight gain, with hepatosomatic index reduced significantly in the 50% and 100% SBM substitution groups. Besides, SBM diet led to significant increase of the glutamic-pyruvic transaminase concentration in the 100% SBM diet group. Moreover, SBM diets higher than 50% resulted in hepatic injury of lipid droplet accumulation by histological analysis. 1H NMR method was applied to detect metabolite changes in liver and serum. Totally, 47 and 50 representative metabolites were screened in liver and serum, respectively. The subsequent PLS-DA analysis identified 23 in liver and 10 in serum of metabolites affected by SBM substitution through pairwise comparisons, respectively. The following pathway enrichment revealed 9 in liver and 17 in serum of perturbed pathways, respectively. Among them, pathway of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis with two differentiated metabolites (phenylalanine and tyrosine) involved deserved the highest impact factor, which indicated severe liver damage by SBM diets.