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Delayed First Feeding Chronically Impairs Larval Fish Growth Performance, Hepatic Lipid Metabolism, and Visceral Lipid Deposition at the Mouth-Opening Stage

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Abstract

During the mouth-opening stage, fish larvae are susceptible to delayed first feeding (DFF). In this study, we explored the effects of DFF for two days on later growth and energy metabolism in larval fish. Results showed that DFF chronically impaired larval growth performance, thereby reducing the efficiency of feed utilization by larvae. In DFF larvae, the mRNA levels of growth inhibitors (i.e., igfbp1a and igfbp1b) were significantly upregulated and consistently maintained at high expression levels, which may be an important attribution of larval growth retardation. Concomitantly, DFF retarded the growth of adipose tissue and reduced lipid deposition in larval viscera, suggesting lipid metabolism is disordered in DFF larvae and generates inefficient lipid reserves. In the liver, we observed that DFF resulted in a significant accumulation of neutral lipids, and this phenotype did not disappear rapidly after DFF larvae received exogenous nutrition. As to the transcript analyses, we found that the expression of genes related to hepatic lipid synthesis (e.g., srebf1, srebf2, dgat1a, dgat1b, fasn, and scdb) in DFF larvae was consistently upregulated, while the expression of genes involved in lipid transport (e.g., apoa2, apoa4b.1, and apoa4b.3) was downregulated. Therefore, it appears that the inefficient lipid reserves in DFF larvae are associated with their hepatic lipid transport dysfunction. Taken together, our findings contribute to understanding the impairments to fish larvae caused by delayed first feeding during the mouth-opening stage and to aiding larval management in the aquaculture industry.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO. SWU-KQ22015) and the Chongqing Aquatic Science and Technology Innovation Alliance (NO. 4322200053).

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Author notes

  1. Hao Xu and Wenbo Wang contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries and Aquaculture Biotechnology Laboratory, College of Fisheries, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Hao Xu, Wenbo Wang, Zhentao Nie, Xiaomin Miao & Yun Li

  2. Integrative Science Center of Germplasm Creation in Western China (CHONGQING) Science City, Chongqing, 401329, China

    Hao Xu & Yun Li

  3. Key Laboratory of Freshwater Fish Reproduction and Development (Ministry of Education), Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science of Chongqing, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Hao Xu & Yun Li

Authors
  1. Hao Xu
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  2. Wenbo Wang
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  3. Zhentao Nie
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  4. Xiaomin Miao
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  5. Yun Li
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Contributions

Hao Xu and Yun Li designed and conceived the whole experiment. Hao Xu conducted the experiments, collated the data, and wrote the original. Wenbo Wang provided guidance on methods and software and checked the manuscript. Xiaomin Miao provided help with conceptualization and methodology. Zhentao Nie and Hao Xu provided the experimental sample and supervision. Yun Li provided guidance on methods, conception, writing, and project support and checked the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yun Li.

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All animal experiments were performed in accordance with the guiding principles for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Committee for Laboratory Animal Experimentation at Southwest University, China (Approval ID: 2021112601).

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Xu, H., Wang, W., Nie, Z. et al. Delayed First Feeding Chronically Impairs Larval Fish Growth Performance, Hepatic Lipid Metabolism, and Visceral Lipid Deposition at the Mouth-Opening Stage. Mar Biotechnol 25, 140–149 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-022-10187-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-022-10187-z

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