Growth and Metabolic Response of Chinese Perch to Different Dietary Protein-to-Energy Ratios in Artificial Diets

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2019-11, Vol.20 (23), p.5983
• Main Authors: Alam, Muhammad Shoaib, Liang, Xu-Fang, Liu, Liwei, He, Shan, Kuang, Yulan, Hoseinifar, Seyed Hossein, Dawar, Farman Ullah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adenosine; Adenosine deaminase; Adenosine monophosphate; Alanine; Alanine transaminase; Alanine Transaminase - genetics; Alanine Transaminase - metabolism; Alkaline phosphatase; Amino acids; AMP Deaminase - genetics; AMP Deaminase - metabolism; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Artificial diets; Aspartate aminotransferase; Aspartate Aminotransferases - genetics; Aspartate Aminotransferases - metabolism; Biochemical analysis; Blood; Body Composition; Body weight; Carbohydrates; Conversion ratio; Diet; Dietary Proteins - metabolism; Efficiency; Energy; Energy conversion efficiency; Energy Metabolism; Enzymes; Feed efficiency; Fiberglass; Fish Proteins - genetics; Fish Proteins - metabolism; Fisheries; Gene expression; Glutamate dehydrogenase; Glutamate Dehydrogenase - genetics; Glutamate Dehydrogenase - metabolism; Growth rate; Homeostasis; Kinases; Lipids; Liver; LKB1 protein; Metabolic response; Metabolism; Metabolites; Muscles; Neuropeptide Y; Nitrogen; Nitrogen metabolism; Nutrients; Perches - growth & development; Perches - metabolism; Polynomials; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - genetics; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - metabolism; Proopiomelanocortin; Protein Kinases - genetics; Protein Kinases - metabolism; Protein synthesis; Proteins; Retention; Tanks; TOR protein; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism; Triglycerides; Urea
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms20235983

The effect of dietary nutrients on novel farm species has always garnered wide research and economic interest. Chinese perch, an economically important carnivorous fish, accepts an artificial diet after taming, so it is essential to evaluate and optimize the nutritional and metabolic demands of this species. However, little is known about the effect of an artificial diet on the growth and metabolism of Chinese perch. Therefore, the present study evaluated the growth and metabolic responses of Chinese perch to experimental diets with different dietary protein/energy (P/E) ratios. Five isoenergetic diets (18 kJ/g) with graded levels of P/E ratios of 30.58, 33.22, 35.90, 38.6, and 41.35 mg/kJ (named A, B, C, D, and E) were formulated. A total of 225 Chinese perch (64.89 ± 0.28 g) were divided into five groups (triplicate tanks for each group), distributed into 15 (350 L) fiberglass tanks, and fed twice a day at 4% of fish wet body weight with the respective P/E ratio diets for 10 weeks. Compared with the other groups, Chinese perch in Group C showed significantly improved growth performance, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), viscerosomatic index (VSI), hepatosomatic index (HSI), intraperitoneal fat (IPF), feed utilization, feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), protein retention efficiency (PRE), energy retention efficiency (ERE), and feed efficiency (FE) as well as whole-body, muscle, and liver composition. Chinese perch in Group A, on the other hand, had the lowest growth performance, feed utilization, and body composition compared with the other groups. The activities of nitrogen metabolism-related enzymes (alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), and adenosine 5'-monophosphate deaminase (AMPD)) as well as the mRNA expression of the and genes were significantly lower than those in the other groups. Similarly, the expression of and were significantly higher in Group C compared with the other groups. However, the gene expression of and was not affected by the dietary P/E ratios. In Group A, the expression of , , and was significantly lower and that of , , and was significantly higher when compared with the other groups. Biochemical analysis of blood showed that ALT, AST, total protein (TP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), glucose (GLU), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and triglyceride (TG) levels were also affected by the dietary P/E ratio. From our results, we