Diet influence on mechanisms of non-specific stress-response in Baikal endemic amphipod species during long-term laboratory exposure

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate one of the important aspects of amphipod laboratory culturing — the effect of different types of nutrition on the key biochemical markers widely used in biomonitoring. The study was performed with the Baikal endemic amphipod species Eulimnogammarus verrucosus (Gerstfeldt, 1858), E. cyaneus (Dybowski, 1874), and Gmelinoides fasciatus (Stebbing, 1899). These species are characterized by different ecological properties and evolutionary history. The results of the study demonstrate that a long-term laboratory exposure to different diets has a direct effect on vital and physiological parameters of the species’ adaptation (mortality, weight, protein concentration). Also, feeding imposes its influence on the common stress-markers of oxidative stress (activities of peroxidase, catalase, glutathione S-transferase), and on anaerobic metabolism (activity of lactate dehydrogenase) in Baikal amphipods, and this effect has a species-specific character. The results should be taken into consideration in future ecophysiological experiments performed with amphipods.

Diet affects body color and energy metabolism in the Baikal endemic amphipod <em>Eulimnogammarus cyaneus</em> maintained in laboratory conditions

“…The similar weights of animals from different diets and similar mortality levels in winter (Fig. S3 and S4) corroborate previous studies (Axenov-Gribanov et al, 2019) and also confirm that all studied diets are acceptable for this species. Overall, while additional research is required to determine the optimal…”

“…Taken together with previous studies (Timofeyev et al, 2009;Axenov-Gribanov et al, 2019), our data confirm that long-term laboratory rearing affects color formation, metabolism, the stress response, and other factors in amphipods. It remains unclear if the recorded changes in antioxidant enzyme activities (Timofeyev et al, 2009;Axenov-Gribanov et al, 2019) and color changes (this work) bear negative consequences for the overall state of the cultured animals. However, these data do highlight the importance of adjusting, documenting, and standardizing rearing procedures for each group of species to be laboratory reared.…”

“…Recently, a comparison of a commercial crustacean diet (Tetra Crustaceans Menu, TCM), vegetable mix (potatoes and carrots), Baikal feed mixture (dried and ground mix of amphipods (mostly Eulimnogammarus sp. ), and macrophytes (mostly Elodea canadensis) from Lake Baikal littoral, BFM) was performed with a focus on oxidative stress markers, weight, and total protein content (Axenov-Gribanov et al, 2019). While all chosen diets allowed maintenance of weight and protein content over 12 weeks, feeding with TCM and BFM was associated with a gradual decrease in the glutathione S-transferase and lactate dehydrogenase activities.…”