Growth and Meat Quality of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) Responded to Dietary Protein (Soybean Meal) Level Through the Muscle Metabolism and Gene Expression of Myosin Heavy Chains

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary protein level (soybean meal) on growth performance, flesh quality of grass carp, and the related molecular mechanisms. The results showed that appropriate dietary protein levels improved the growth performance, hardness, and pH of muscle while decreasing muscle crude lipid content and cooking loss and altering the antioxidant capacity and metabolic enzymes activities. In addition, appropriate dietary protein promoted the gene expression of myhc-1, myhc-4, myf5, myod, myog, and fgf6a, whereas inhibited that of myhc-7, myhc-2, mrf4, and mstn. Transcriptome profiling of muscle revealed that the flesh quality-specific differences were related to tight junctions and intramuscular fat (IMF) accumulation. GSEA showed that fatty acid metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation were downregulated in SM5 compared with SM1. To conclude, appropriate protein levels improved the growth and flesh quality by regulating muscle antioxidant capacity and gene expression of myhcs and fat metabolism-related signaling molecules.

Effects of Dietary Cottonseed Protein Concentrate Levels on Growth Performance, Health Status, Flesh Quality and Intestinal Microbiota of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)

“…This may be due to the depression in feeding rate and more energy expenditure on processing excess protein for deamination, increasing the nitrogen metabolism burden and affecting fish growth [28]. Based on SGR and FE, the optimal dietary protein levels for juvenile grass carp (4.68 ± 0.01 g) were estimated to be 38.61 and 38.66% in this study, respectively, which was highly consistent with the 38.63% protein requirement of grass carp (6.80 ± 0.10 g) [20]. Moreover, the result of this study was close to the 40% requirement for juvenile grass carp (4.27 ± 0.01 g) reported by Jin et al [10], but slightly lower than the 41-43% requirement for grass carp fry (0.15-0.20 g) reported by Dabrowski [9].…”

“…A previous study showed that transcriptome analysis of broad bean-fed grass carp (higher hardness) muscle detected upregulation of myog, which plays a crucial role in promoting the formation of new muscle fibers [17]. Likewise, a recent study found that optimal dietary protein (soybean meal) levels promoted the expression of genes myhc-1 and myhc-4 by regulating a family of MRFs and contributed to flesh quality improvement [20]. Optimal dietary protein levels in this investigation may improve flesh quality through the same pattern.…”

“…Furthermore, a previous study showed that replacing rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal with DDGS induced the myosin isoforms transformation of grass carp, altering the muscle texture properties, histological muscle properties, and gene expression of MRFs [16,19]. A recent study showed that feeding grass carp (6.80 ± 0.10 g) with graded protein level (soybean meal) diets improved flesh quality at the appropriate protein level [20]. Likewise, in a study of large grass carp (264.11 ± 0.76 g), optimal protein levels (fish meal, casein and gelatin) also improved muscle texture and antioxidant capacity [12].…”

Dietary protein improves flesh quality by enhancing antioxidant ability via the NF-E2-related factor 2/Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 signaling pathway in softshell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

“…The flesh quality of cultured aquaculture is drawing greater attention as peoples' living standards improve (4). Diets with unbalanced nutrition would substantially diminish the flesh quality of aquatic animals, entailing a reduction in nutritional values and more variation in texture parameters (5)(6)(7).…”

Evaluation of four novel protein sources as alternatives to soybean meal for two specifications of cage-farmed grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) deeds: Effect on growth performance, flesh quality, and expressions of muscle-related genes

“…Texture parameters and shear force are two important parameters that describe the characteristics of muscle tissue, and are usually affected by many factors, such as fish species, genotype, feed, and culture environment (Wang et al, 2022). Texture parameters are used to simulate the chewing of human teeth to represent the taste of meat, including its hardness, cohesion, elasticity, and chewiness, whereas shear force is used to simulate the cutting of muscle fibers by human teeth to represent the meat tenderness (Cheng et al, 2014).…”