Untargeted metabolomics approach for unraveling robust biomarkers of nutritional status in fasted gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata).

Ruben Gil-Solsona,Juan Vicente Sancho,Jaume Pérez-Sánchez,Josep Alvar Calduch-Giner,Félix Hernández,Leticia Lacalle-Bergeron,Jaime Nácher-Mestre

doi:10.7717/peerj.2920

Ruben Gil-Solsona, Juan Vicente Sancho + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2920

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Abstract

A metabolomic study has been performed to identify sensitive and robust biomarkers of malnutrition in farmed fish, using gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) as a model. The metabolomic fingerprinting of serum from fasted fish was assessed by means of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. More than 15,000 different m/z ions were detected and Partial Least Squares–Discriminant analysis allowed a clear differentiation between the two experimental groups (fed and 10-day fasted fish) with more than 90% of total variance explained by the two first components. The most significant metabolites (up to 45) were elucidated on the basis of their tandem mass spectra with a broad representation of amino acids, oligopeptides, urea cycle metabolites, L-carnitine-related metabolites, glutathione-related metabolites, fatty acids, lysophosphatidic acids, phosphatidylcholines as well as biotin- and noradrenaline-related metabolites. This untargeted approach highlighted important adaptive responses in energy and oxidative metabolism, contributing to identify robust and nutritionally-regulated biomarkers of health and metabolic condition that will serve to assess the welfare status of farmed fish.

Highlights

Fish aquaculture is the sector of animal livestock production with higher growth rates at the global level
We need to refine our knowledge on nutrient requirements to produce more robust, safe and quality fish, especially with the advent of new diet formulations based on alternative plant ingredients rather than marine feedstuffs (Karalazos et al, 2007; Médale et al, 2013; Benedito-Palos et al, How to cite this article Gil-Solsona et al (2017), Untargeted metabolomics approach for unraveling robust biomarkers of nutritional status in fasted gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)
Serum samples were analyzed with two ionization modes and two different chromatographic columns: reversed phase (RP) for a better separation of non-polar compounds, and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) to best separate the most polar compounds

Summary

Introduction

Fish aquaculture is the sector of animal livestock production with higher growth rates at the global level. This industry highly contributes to cover the current and the future demand of nutritious quality food for human consumption (Ottinger, Clauss & Kuenzer, 2016). This starts with the selection of high quality raw materials in order to ensure the development of an efficient and environmentally sustainable sector. Research in fish nutrition is moving from classical methodologies to omics approaches, including transcriptomics (Benedito-Palos, Ballester-Lozano & Pérez-Sánchez, 2014; Louro, Power & Canario, 2014), proteomics (Rodrigues et al, 2012; Wrzesinski et al, 2013) and metabolomics (Kullgren et al, 2010; Silva et al, 2014; Asakura et al, 2014)

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