Abstract
Pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii is widely recognized for biomineralization and has been cultured for high-quality marine pearl production. To ascertain how dietary vitamin D3 (VD3) levels affect the features of pearl production by P. f. martensii and discover the mechanisms regulating this occurrence, five experimental diets with variable levels of VD3 were used with inclusion levels of 0, 500, 1,000, 3,000, and 10,000 IU/kg. The distinct inclusion levels were distributed into five experimental groups (EG1, EG2, EG3, EG4, and EG5). All the experimental groups were reared indoors except the control group (CG) reared at the sea. Pearl oysters, one year and a half old, were used in the grafting operation to culture pearls. During the growing period that lasted 137 days, EG3 had the highest survival rate, retention rate, and high-quality pearl rate. A similar trend was found for EG3 and CG with significantly higher pearl thickness and nacre deposition rates than other groups, but no significant differences were observed between them. A metabolomics profiling using GC–MS and LC–MS of pearl oysters fed with low quantities of dietary VD3 and optimal levels of dietary VD3 revealed 135 statistically differential metabolites (SDMs) (VIP > 1 and p < 0.05). Pathway analysis indicated that SDMs were involved in 32 pathways, such as phenylalanine metabolism, histidine metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, alanine aspartate and glutamate metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, glycerolipid metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, and tyrosine metabolism. These results provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the impacts of VD3 on pearl production traits in pearl oyster and reinforce forthcoming prospects and application of VD3 in pearl oyster in aquaculture rearing conditions.
Highlights
Biomineralization is widely distributed into the marine environment and essential to the welfare of several organisms
The primary aim of this study was to investigate distinct diets varying in the vitamin D3 (VD3) levels given to pearl oyster cultured in a land-based facility after nucleus operation
The survival rates between the six groups were not significantly different, the peak survival rate was observed at EG3 (p > 0.05, Table 1), coupled with a peak in retention rate, which was significantly higher than EG2, EG4, EG5, and control group (CG) (Table 1, p < 0.05)
Summary
Biomineralization is widely distributed into the marine environment and essential to the welfare of several organisms. The pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii is widely recognized in biomineralization It is a filter feeder and a representative species for producing highquality marine pearl in China and Japan, accounting for more than 90% of seawater pearl produced Martensii is at the open sea in a floating raft or a vertical pile exposing them to variable and sometimes extreme environmental conditions (Adzigbli et al, 2020). This susceptibility has caused a decreasing trend in pearl yield since the 1990s due to mass mortality and deteriorating environments (Miyazaki et al, 1999; He et al, 2008; Qiu et al, 2014). The aforementioned disadvantages can be avoided through landbased culturing; high dietary demand and the limited information on nutrition requirements for bivalves are some of the big challenges for land-based cultures (Yang et al, 2019a)
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