Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Abbreviation
TauT
Taurine transporter
30.1
Introduction
The aquaculture industry is currently the fastest-growing food-producing
sector, with an increased production from less than one to 50 million tons
during the last 50 years. However, one of the current setbacks of the industry
is the reduced production of high-quality juveniles. This is mainly due to the
poor understanding on the nutritional requirements of fish in the early devel-
opmental stages, when larvae possess a poorly differentiated digestive tract
with low digestive and absorption capacities (Yúfera and Darias
2007
;
Rønnestad and Morais
2008
). For this purpose, aquaculture nutritionists have
directed their research efforts towards nutrients considered important for fish
development, one of these being taurine. Similarly to several mammal spe-
cies, the capacity to biosynthesise taurine varies among fish species and
throughout ontogenesis (Kim et al.
2008
). Moreover, although positive effects
have been observed for juveniles of several fish species fed taurine-supple-
mented diets (Matsunari et al.
2005
), any positive effects on fish larval devel-
opment still require further clarification. Nevertheless, it is expected that
dietary taurine supplementation may be crucial for fish larvae. This is based
on the high levels of taurine found during egg and yolk-sac stages, indicating
that taurine has a high physiological importance for embryo development.
Additionally, in contrast to live feeds fed to fish larvae in aquaculture set-
tings, the natural live prey of fish larvae have high taurine levels (van der
Meeren et al.
2008
), suggesting that fish larvae should be fed with taurine-
supplemented diets.
This study aimed to further explore the physiological role of taurine during fish
development. For this purpose, three experiments were conducted using two model
species: gilthead sea bream (
Sparus aurata
) and the flatfish Senegalese sole (
Solea
senegalensis
), a dominant and an emerging species for the aquaculture industry in
southern European countries, respectively. Moreover, while Senegalese sole under-
goes a visibly marked metamorphosis that is typical for flatfish (around 12-20 days
after hatching), this process is morphologically less striking in gilthead sea bream
(Pinto et al.
2009
). The effect of dietary taurine supplementation was assessed in the
two species: in sea bream larvae evaluation was based on growth performance,
while in sole larvae evaluation was based on growth, metamorphosis success and
amino acid metabolism. In addition, the expression of taurine transporter (TauT)
was characterised by qPCR in sole larvae and juveniles.
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