Abstract
Improvement in fish feed conversion efficiency (FCE) is beneficial for sustaining global food fish supplies. Here, we show that a set of polymorphisms at locus of the corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 2 (crhr2), which is involved in hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis signaling, is associated with improved FCE in farmed allogynogenetic gibel carp strain CAS III compared with that in the wild gibel carp strain Dongting (DT). This set of polymorphisms downregulates the expression levels of crhr2 mRNA in the brain and pituitary tissues in gibel carp strain CAS III compared with those in strain DT. Furthermore, compromised HPI axis signaling is observed in gibel carp strain CAS III, such as decreased α-melanocyte stimulating hormone protein levels, plasma cortisol content, and stress responses. Moreover, enhanced activation of protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 signaling observed in the muscle tissue of strain CAS III in comparison to that in strain DT indicated elevated anabolic metabolism in strain CAS III. Thus, these studies demonstrate that the genetic markers associated with compromised HPI axis signaling, such as crhr2, are potentially useful for genetic selection toward improvement in farmed fish growth and FCE, which would reduce fishmeal consumption and thereby indirectly facilitate sustainable fisheries.
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Acknowldgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0900404), the Pilot Program A Project from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA24010206), State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (2019FBZ05), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31530077), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682527). We would like to thank Guangxin Wang at the Analysis and Testing Center of the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences for her technical assistance in immunofluorescence assay.
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Shi, C., Lou, Q., Fu, B. et al. Genomic polymorphisms at the crhr2 locus improve feed conversion efficiency through alleviation of hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis activity in gibel carp (Carassius gibelio). Sci. China Life Sci. 65, 206–214 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1924-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1924-4