Effects of Starving and Re-feeding Strategies on the Growth Performance and Physiological Characteristics of the Juvenile Tongue Sole(Cynoglossus semilaevis)

Starving and re-feeding trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of starvation duration and recovery times on the growth performance and physiological characteristics of juvenile tongue sole Cynoglossus semilaevis, which included growth, body composition, intestinal morphology and digestive enzymes activities. The fish starved for one(D1), two(D2) and four(D4) days, respectively, were recovered for three(R3, R6, R12), seven(R7, R14, R28) and eleven(R11, R22, R44) folds of starvation days while the control fish were fed constantly. The experiment was conducted for 96 days. The fish individuals in D1R11, D2R14 and D2R22 caught up in weight with the control, indicating that complete compensatory growth existed in these fish individuals. The highest body weight gain and total specific growth rates were observed in D2R22. Food intake increased significantly in most treatments in comparison with that of the control except for D1R7 and D2R22(P < 0.05). Food conversion efficiency and apparent digest coefficient in D2R22 were significantly promoted, being higher than that of the control(P < 0.05). The activities of trypsin and lipase were found to be closely related to the growth performance. The activities of liver and hindgut trypsin, also midgut and hindgut lipase in D2R22 were significantly higher than those of the control(P < 0.05). The fold height(HF) of foregut and midgut increased significantly in D2R22, and HF decreased significantly in D1R3, D2R6 and D4R12(P < 0.05). On our findings, we may conclude that the optimum starving and re-feeding strategy is starving for 2 days and re-feeding for 22 days. And in this starving and re-feeding strategy, the compensatory growth could be mostly attributed to the promotion of food conversion efficiency and digestibility coefficiency.

Molecular cloning,tissue expression of gene Muc2 in blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala and regulation after re-feeding

Mucins are important components of mucus, which form a natural, physical, biochemical and semipermeable mucosal layer on the epidermis offish gills, skin, and the gastrointestinal tract. As the first step towards characterizing the function of Muc2, we cloned a partial Megalobrama amblycephala Muc2 cDNA of 2 175 bp, and analyzed its tissue-specific expression pattern by quantitative real-time PCR （qPCR）. The obtained sequence comprised 41 bp 5＇-untranslated region （5＇-UTR）, 2 134 bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 711 amino acids. BLAST searching and phylogenetic analysis showed that the predicted protein contained several common secreted mucin-module domains （VWD-C8-TIL-VWD-C8） and had high homology with mucins from other vertebrates. Among four candidate reference genes （β-Actin, RP113a, RPII, 18S） for the qPCR, RPII was chosen as an appropriate reference gene because of its lowest variation in different tissues. M. amblycephala Muc2 was mainly expressed in the intestine, in the order （highest to lowest） middle-intestine 〉 fore-intestine 〉 hind-intestine. Muc2 was expressed relatively poorly in other organs （brain, liver, kidney, spleen, skin and gill）. Furthermore, after 20-days of starvation, M. amblycephala Muc2 expressions after refeeding for 0 h, 3 h, 16 h, 3 d, and 10 d were significantly decreased in the three intestinal segments （P〈0.05） at 16 h, and were then upregulated to near the initial level at 10 d.

Variation of food availability affects male striped hamsters(Cricetulus barabensis)with different levels of metabolic rate

In the present study,we examined metabolic,morphological and neurochemical changes in male striped hamsters(Cricetulus barabensis)in response to variations in food availability.Males with low and high levels of metabolic rate(MR:L-MR and H-MR,respectively),defined by their activity MR,were compared.In Experiment 1,36-h food deprivation was found to significantly decrease MR levels,body fat content,mass of small and large intestines,and leptin gene expression in the white adipose tissues in male hamsters.Interestingly,L-MR males displayed decreased MR during both the day and night phases of circadian cycles,whereas H-MR males only showed a decrease in MR during the day(resting phase).These data indicate that individual differences in physical activity were associated with animals’different metabolic responses to food deprivation.In Experiment 2,both groups of males went through a 4-week fasting and re-feeding(re)paradigm.H-re males showed a persistent high level of MR,with decreased body fat content and a trending decrease in leptin mRNA expression,compared to L-re males.Together,our data indicate that male striped hamsters with different levels of physical activity display altered,adaptive changes in response to variations in food availability.The neurochemical involvement of such adaptive changes needs to be further studied.