Acronym HYDRAA
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Improved dietary nitrogen formulations for marine fish larvae: effects on growth performance and skeletal formation Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European Coordinator Luis Conceicao Coordinator email lconcei@ualg.pt
Coordinator institution
CCMAR - Center of Marine Sciences (Portugal)
Institutions involved
IPMA - Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (Portugal) ,
Start year 2008 End year 2011 Funding (€) € 190,802 Website https://www.fct.pt/apoios/projectos/consulta/vglobal_projecto?idProjecto=71685&idElemConcurso=860 Summary The gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) is the most produced fish species in Southern Europe aquaculture. Although relatively high survival rates are usually achieved in aquaculture production of gilthead seabream larvae, growth performances are probably sub-optimal, and skeleton deformities are one of the main constrains. Diets with poor protein content and amino acid deficiencies have been related to poor growth and to development of skeletal deformities during the larval stage in seabream and other marine species. Still, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The central objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of improving growth performance while minimizing the skeletal deformity problems commonly found when marine fish larvae are cultured, through the use of enhanced dietary nitrogen formulations. It is also intended to verify how key proteins involved in muscle growth and skeletal development are affected through proteomic and genomic approaches, in order to better understand the mechanisms involved. Model species to be used is the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). A set of diet formulations varying in the type and degree of hydrolysis of dietary protein will be developed in this project. Graded levels of protein hydrolysates will be used, and also different hydrolysates sources will be considered. The degree of hydrolysis of the proteins will be manipulated and each hydrolysate product to be tested will be evaluated in terms of amino acid profile and peptide fractions present. Candidate formulations will be tested for leaching when food particles are dispensed into the water. The effect of selected dietary nitrogen formulations on amino acid (AA) utilisation of marine fish larvae will then be studied. This will be assessed using an in vivo method based on controlled tube-feeding of a diet containing a labelled 14C-AA. The tube-feeding method allows estimating metabolic budgets of individual AA (including unabsorbed AA, AA oxidation and AA retention) when fish larvae are fed the different dietary nitrogen formulations. Thereby an extended number of diet formulations will be screened in short-term trials. These results will contribute to better understand the capacity of fish larvae of different developmental stages to digest, absorb and utilize dietary nitrogen under different molecular forms. The former results will also be used to select dietary nitrogen formulations to be used in long-term trials with seabream larvae. It will then be verified to what extent growth and survival performance can be improved through manipulation of the dietary nitrogen formulations for seabream larvae. The effect of such dietary formulations in the incidence of skeletal deformities will also be carefully evaluated, to assess eventual benefits in larval quality. Samples will also be taken for subsequent functional- proteomics and genomics work. Proteomics techniques will be used to verify to what extent growth performances and skeletal deformities observed in gilthead seabream larvae treated with different dietary nitrogen formulations, can be explained through the expression of muscle and skeletal proteins. It is expected that the mechanisms through which dietary nitrogen influences muscle growth and skeleton formation will then be better understood. These results will also allow the selection of proteins to be studied by functional genomics. Finally, it is intended to study the expression of selected proteins involved in growth and skeletogenesis of seabream larvae using functional genomics methodologies. The genomic information acquired will be integrated with the proteomics results previously obtained in order to get further insight into the mechanisms through which dietary nitrogen influences muscle growth and skeleton formation. The project involves researchers from CCMAR with extensive knowledge in amino acid and protein metabolism, larval nutrition, skeleton metabolism and molecular techniques. The project team is further reinforced by two international experts on amino acid metabolism (Prof. Ronnestad, Univ. Bergen, Norway) and microdiets formulation (Dr. Manuel Yúfera, ICMAN-CSIC, Spain). The technical assistance from the FUGE proteomics platform (PROBE, Bergen, Norway) will guarantee additional expertise in Proteomics.
The central objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of improving growth performance while minimizing the skeletal deformity problems commonly found when marine fish larvae are cultured, through the use of enhanced dietary nitrogen formulations. It is also intended to verify how key proteins involved in muscle growth and skeletal development are affected through proteomic and genomic approaches, in order to better understand the mechanisms involved. Model species to be used is the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata).
Keywords
Growth rate;
Fish biology;
Larvae;
Fish;
Fish health;
Larval quality;
Larval rearing;
Seabream;
Diets;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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