Influence of prehatch temperature on the development of muscle cellularity in posthatch Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Abstract

Previous work has shown that higher incubation temperatures produce newly hatched salmon (Salmo salar) with fewer but larger muscle fibres than salmon incubated at colder temperatures. Our purpose was to study the effect of differing incubation temperatures on the development of muscle cellularity in posthatch salmon. Eggs from a single pair of Atlantic salmon were incubated at either the stream ambient temperature (fluctuating around 5 °C prehatch and gradually rising to around 10 °C posthatch) or at 11 °C. From each group, samples were taken at hatching, first feeding, and at 3 weeks after first feeding. During the period of exogenous feeding under study, the ambient group grew faster. The number of muscle fibres remained lower in the 11 °C fish but there was more muscle fibre hypertrophy in the ambient group so that the difference in muscle fibre size seen at hatching was eliminated by 3 weeks after first feeding. It is suggested that reduced number of nuclei in the 11 °C fish at hatching may contribute to the relatively reduced fibre hypertrophy in these fish. The results indicate that embryonic myogenesis can affect the posthatch growth of salmon at least up to 3 weeks after first feeding.

Larval programming of post-hatch muscle growth and activity in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

“…At 21·weeks fish incubated at 5°C were also heavier than those incubated at 10°C. This may be because of larval transformation and shifting from endogenous to exogenous feeding which appears to significantly change the body mass to length ratio in the cooler-reared group (Nathanailides et al, 1995). At the eyed stage, the number of the white fibres was the same in embryos reared at both temperatures, this is in agreement with previous reports (Usher et al, 1994).…”

“…In this species a warmer incubation temperature, compared to the cooler ambient temperature, produced bigger but fewer fibres with high myofibrillar content at the newly hatched stage (Stickland et al, 1988). The hatched embryos of salmon that were incubated at the cooler ambient temperature also grew better up to 3·weeks post-hatch when all juveniles were grown at ambient temperature after hatching (Nathanailides et al, 1995). Johnston et al (Johnston et al, 2000) also showed that cooler temperature regimes up to first feeding in Atlantic salmon produced fish that grew better up to 12·weeks later.…”

Temperature and the expression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) and myosin heavy chain isoforms during embryogenesis in the common carpCyprinus carpioL.

“…Temperature has been shown to influence many aspects of development in teleosts, including muscle cellularity (Stickland et al, 1988;Vieira and Johnston, 1992;Nathanailides et al, 1995;Johnston and McLay, 1997;Matschak et al, 1998;Galloway et al, 1998Galloway et al, , 1999Hall and Johnston, 2003) and the relative timing of myofibrillogenesis (Johnston et al, 1995(Johnston et al, , 1996(Johnston et al, , 1997. There is also a small body of evidence to suggest the timing and extent of MRF gene expression varies with temperature.…”

Persistent effects of incubation temperature on muscle development in larval haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinusL.)

“…12°C and 16°C) and both latter studies employed gradually rising temperatures in the post-hatch environment to simulate natural conditions. In addition, studies that have encompassed a narrower ontogenetic range have proposed, but not been able to demonstrate, the occurrence of this phenomenon: Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. (Nathanailides et al, 1995;Johnston et al, 2000a;Johnston et al, 2000b), sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax L. (Ayala et al, 2000), and Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. (Galloway et al, 1998).…”

“…The fastest-growing fish expressed the greatest hyperplasia (Weatherley and Rogers, 1978;Weatherley et al, 1979;Weatherley et al, 1980). Nathanailides et al (Nathanailides et al, 1995) proposed that larvae with fewer but larger fibres would have less potential for subsequent hypertrophic growth compared to those with more numerous and smaller cells. The increase in cellular recruitment associated with increased temperature herein encapsulated a strategy of increasing functional units in early ontogeny, upon which to build by hypertrophy in subsequent life history.…”