Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Aurantiochytrium sp. on Zebrafish Growth as Determined by Transcriptomics

Hao Yang; Yanlin Huang; Zhiyuan Li; Yuwen Guo; Shuangfei Li; Hai Huang; Xuewei Yang; Guangli Li; Huapu Chen

doi:10.3390/ani12202794

Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Aurantiochytrium sp. on Zebrafish Growth as Determined by Transcriptomics

Animals (Basel). 2022 Oct 16;12(20):2794. doi: 10.3390/ani12202794.

Authors

Hao Yang^{1

2}, Yanlin Huang¹, Zhiyuan Li¹, Yuwen Guo¹, Shuangfei Li³, Hai Huang², Xuewei Yang³, Guangli Li¹, Huapu Chen^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Research Center on Reproductive Control and Breeding Technology of Indigenous Valuable Fish Species, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Biology and Epidemiology for Aquatic Economic Animals, Fisheries College, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.
² Key Laboratory of Utilization and Conservation for Tropical Marine Bioresources of Ministry of Education, Hainan Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Tropical Marine Fishery Resources, Yazhou Bay Innovation Institute, Hainan Tropical Ocean University, Sanya 572022, China.
³ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
⁴ School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 999077, China.

Abstract

The marine protist Aurantiochytrium produces several bioactive chemicals, including EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), and other critical fish fatty acids. It has the potential to improve growth and fatty acid profiles in aquatic taxa. This study evaluated zebrafish growth performance in response to diets containing 1% to 3% Aurantiochytrium sp. crude extract (TE) and single extract for 56 days. Growth performance was best in the 1% TE group, and therefore, this concentration was used for further analyses of the influence of Aurantiochytrium sp. Levels of hepatic lipase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, acetyl-CoA oxidase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase increased significantly in response to 1% TE, while malic enzyme activity, carnitine lipid acylase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase, and malondialdehyde levels decreased. These findings suggest that Aurantiochytrium sp. extract can modulate lipase activity, improve lipid synthesis, and decrease oxidative damage caused by lipid peroxidation. Transcriptome analysis revealed 310 genes that were differentially expressed between the 1% TE group and the control group, including 185 up-regulated genes and 125 down-regulated genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) pathway analyses of the differentially expressed genes revealed that Aurantiochytrium sp. extracts may influence liver metabolism, cell proliferation, motility, and signal transduction in zebrafish.

Keywords: Aurantiochytrium sp.; growth; metabolic enzymes; transcriptome; zebrafish.

Grants and funding

This article was supported by South China Aquaculture Breeding Funding (2022RHDKFKT01), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32273131, 32160861 and 32172971), the Key Research and Development Program of Guangdong (2021B202020002), the talent team tender grant of Zhanjiang marine equipment and biology (2021E05035), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515010958), The Major Science and Technology plan of Hainan Province (ZDKJ2021017), Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission TCFS (GHP/087/18SZ) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Application Demonstration Project (KJYY20180201180253571).