Digestive enzyme activities during pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis) ontogeny

Abstract

The first step for assessing and refining the nutritional requirements during the larval and early juvenile stages of a fish is the study of the ontogeny of digestive system functionality. The combination of these studies with ecological and anatomical knowledge of the species of interest establishes the base for facing one of the major aquaculture challenges: promoting larvae growth and survival. Considering this, changes in the activity of the main digestive (pancreatic and intestinal) enzymes during larval development of the agastric South America pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis) were described in the present work. Digestive enzymes for protein, lipid, and carbohydrate hydrolysis were present from the first-week post-hatching (6.85 ± 0.07 mm total length, TL). Changes in the activity of trypsin, chymotrypsin, and alkaline protease indicated that the exocrine pancreas in pejerrey achieves its functional development at the 2nd week post-hatching (9.22 ± 0.17 mm TL). Interestingly, α-amylase and maltase total activity progressively increased over development, suggesting that gradual incorporation of dietary carbohydrates in a feeding protocol may have a protein-sparing effect, as well as a cheap and fast way to obtain energy for the development and growth of pejerrey. The analysis of intestinal enzymes revealed that the typical shift between intracellular and luminal protein digestion that occurs during larval development in gastric species does not take place in pejerrey, indicating that in agastric species intracellular protein digestion plays a major role in comparison to luminal digestion during larval development. Contrary to gastric species, our results suggest that the ratio of alkaline phosphatase to leucine-aminopeptidase for evaluating gut maturation in agastric species is not recommended, and other parameters should be measured when evaluating the maturation process in fish larvae from this group of species.