Eating for two: Consequences of parental methionine nutrition on offspring metabolism in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Abstract

Parental nutrition events may result in permanent changes in the growth potential, health and metabolic status of the next generation. In the present study, we aimed to determine in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), the effect of feeding broodstock with a diet deficient in methionine (one of the main methyl-group donor needed for all biological methylation reactions including DNA and histones methylation) on the response of several metabolism- and growth-related genes and proteins in offspring subjected to different dietary methionine levels (deficiency or adequate). Adult males and females were fed for 6months with either a methionine deficient diet or a control diet. Males and females of the same feeding group were then crossed and the obtained fry were fed with either a methionine deficient or a control diet for 3weeks from the first exogenous feeding. The obtained results indicated that, whatever the methionine content of the broodstock diet, a 3weeks dietary methionine deficiency in fry strongly affected the levels of transcripts and/or proteins involved in fatty acid synthesis, cholesterol synthesis and the two main cell quality control mechanisms, namely the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy. In addition, our data also demonstrated that the levels of some of these mRNA and/or proteins are also affected by the dietary methionine deficiency in broodstock. Of interest, some genes (involved in gluconeogenesis and autophagy) were only affected by the parental and not by the fry diet. Together, these results clearly show that the broodstock diet may influence the metabolism of the progeny in rainbow trout and highlight the potential to apply new feeding strategies adapted to plant feedstuffs.