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Incorporation and metabolism of 14C-labelled polyunsaturated fatty acids in juvenile gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata L. in vivo

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Abstract

The incorporation, and the capacity for desaturation and elongation in vivo, of intraperitoneally-injected, 14C-labelled n−3 and n−6 C18 and C20 PUFAs were investigated in juvenile gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata. The results indicate that juvenile gilthead sea bream have only limited ability to convert CH PUFAs to C20 and C22 HUFAs in vivo. The data are consistent with the results from nutritional studies on larvae, postlarvae and fingerlings that have shown that gilthead sea bream require the provision of preformed eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids in the diet. The impairment in the desaturase/elongase pathway was quantitatively and qualitatively similar to that found in turbot, Scophthalmus maximus, being at the level of the Δ5-desaturase. The low activity of Δ5-desaturase combined with the consistent finding that arachidonic acid is selectively retained in membrane phosphatidylinositol suggests that, in addition to eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids, gilthead sea bream may also have a requirement for preformed arachidonic acid in the diet.

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Abbreviations

AA:

5,8,11,14-eicosapenaenoic acid (arachidonic acid, 20:4n−6)

CPL:

diradyl (diacyl + alkenylacyl + alkylacyl) glycerophosphocholine

DHA:

4,7,10,13,16,19-docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n−3)

EPA:

5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n−3)

EPL:

diradyl (diacyl, alkenylacyl + alkylacyl) glycerophosphoethanolamine

HUFA:

highly unsaturated fatty acids (≥ C20 and with ≥ 3 double bonds)

LA:

9,12-octadecadienoic acid (linoleic acid, 18:2n−6)

LNA:

9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid (α-linolenic acid, 18:3n−3)

PI:

phosphatidylinositol

PS:

phosphatidylserine

PUFA:

polyunsaturated fatty acid(s)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departmento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad de Cádiz, Polígono Río San Pedro, Apartado 40, 11510-Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain

    Gabriel Mourente

  2. NERC Unit of Aquatic Biochemistry, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland, U.K.

    Douglas R. Tocher

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Mourente, G., Tocher, D.R. Incorporation and metabolism of 14C-labelled polyunsaturated fatty acids in juvenile gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata L. in vivo . Fish Physiol Biochem 10, 443–453 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00004599

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