Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 30
Taurine and Fish Development: Insights
for the Aquaculture Industry
Wilson Pinto , Ivar Rønnestad , Maria Teresa Dinis , and Cláudia Aragão
Abstract
Expansion of the aquaculture industry is limited by incomplete knowl-
edge on fish larval nutritional requirements. Nevertheless, it is believed that dietary
taurine deficiencies may be particularly critical for fish larvae. The reasons include
the high taurine levels found during egg and yolk-sac stages of fish, suggesting that
taurine may be of pivotal importance for larval development. Moreover, unlike
aquaculture feeds, natural preys of fish larvae contain high taurine levels, and dietary
taurine supplementation has been shown to increase larval growth in several fish
species. This study aimed to further explore the physiological role of taurine during
fish development. Firstly, the effect of dietary taurine supplementation was assessed
on growth of gilthead sea bream (
Sparus aurata
) larvae and growth, metamorphosis
success and amino acid metabolism of Senegalese sole (
Solea senegalensis
) larvae.
Secondly, the expression of taurine transporter (TauT) was characterised by qPCR
in sole larvae and juveniles. Results showed that dietary taurine supplementation
did not increase sea bream growth. However, dietary taurine supplementation
significantly increased sole larval growth, metamorphosis success and amino acid
retention. Metamorphosis was also shown to be an important developmental trigger
to promote taurine transport in sole tissues, while evidence for an enterohepatic
recycling pathway for taurine was found in sole at least from juvenile stage. Taken
together, our studies showed that the dependence of dietary taurine supplementation
differs among fish species and that taurine has a vital role during the ontogenetic
development of flatfish, an extremely valuable group targeted for aquaculture
production.
W. Pinto (
*
) M. T. Dinis C. Aragão
CIMAR/CCMAR , Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas ,
Faro , Portugal
e-mail: wpinto@ualg.pt
I. Rønnestad
University of Bergen , Bergen , Norway
Search WWH ::
Custom Search