Abstract
Taurine is an indispensable amino acid for many fish species and taurine supplementation is needed when plant-based diets are used as the primary protein source for these species. However, there is limited information available to understand the physiological or metabolic effects of taurine on fish. In this study, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic analysis was conducted to identify the metabolic profile change in the fish intestine with the aim to assess the effect of dietary taurine supplementation on the physiological and metabolomic variation of fish, and reveal the possible mechanism of taurine’s metabolic effect. Grouper (Epinephelus coioides) were divided into four groups and fed diets containing 0.0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% taurine supplementation for 84 days. After extraction using aqueous and organic solvents, 25 significant taurine-induced metabolic changes were identified. These metabolic changes in grouper intestine were characterized by differences in carbohydrate, amino acid, lipid and nucleotide. The results reflected both the physiological state and growth of the fish, and indicated that taurine supplementation significantly affects the metabolome of fish, improves energy utilization and amino acid uptake, promotes protein, lipid and purine synthesis, and accelerates fish growth.
Highlights
The recent increased expansion of global aquaculture production has led to a greater need for protein sources in feed production [1,2,3]
The present results showed that supplementation of dietary taurine significantly affected the whole-body composition and weight gain rate (WGR) of grouper during the feeding trial (Figure 1)
Crude protein showed an increasing trend in the taurine-supplemented groups (D2, D3, and D4 group) in comparison to the control group (D1), while crude lipid significantly decreased (Figure 1A). These results indicated that taurine supplementation probably influenced the amino acid, protein metabolism, and lipid metabolism of grouper, and affected the growth of the fish
Summary
The recent increased expansion of global aquaculture production has led to a greater need for protein sources in feed production [1,2,3]. Studies have shown that the replacement of FM feed, either partially or completely, with PP sources resulted in inferior fish growth performance together with physiological abnormalities in carnivorous fish [4,5]. This may be due to the lack of certain physiologically active ingredients contained in FM, such as taurine, carnosine, and glutathione [6]. There is an urgent requirement for a nutritionally balanced and cost-effective grow-out diet to achieve a desired level of growth [7,8]
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