Effect of egg incubation temperature on the occurrence of skeletal deformities in Solea senegalensis

Abstract

Summary Temperature is a factor known to have a marked influence on metabolism and consequently on development, inducing ontogenetic plasticity in fish larvae. In this study, three different temperatures (15, 18 and 21°C) were assayed during Solea senegalensis embryonic development prior to hatching. After hatching all larvae were reared at the same temperature (21.0 ± 0.1°C) until 30 days. We observed that lowering the incubation temperature from 21 to 15°C reduced the incidence of skeletal deformities from 80 to 60%. Intermediate incubation temperature (18°C), resulted in larvae that displayed a rate of abnormalities close to that observed at 15°C (64%). A similar typology of deformities was observed in fish from all rearing temperatures, with caudal vertebra being the most affected structures and with a low incidence of cranial and appendicular deformities. The effect of temperature in developmental plasticity will lead to osteological abnormalities mainly affecting the caudal vertebrae at 18°C (30%) and particularly the preural vertebra at 15°C (55%). Our results, clearly demonstrate a significant effect of water temperature during egg incubation on the skeletal development of Senegalese sole, indicating that 18°C is the most appropriated temperature. These findings highlight the importance of tightly controlling temperature regimes during the early development of S. senegalensis, and the need for optimizing rearing protocols in order to avoid skeletal disorders or impaired growth.

Defective skeletogenesis and oversized otoliths in fish early stages in a changing ocean

“…The high percentage of skeletal deformities found in S. senegalensis under control temperature and pCO 2 conditions (70.9±2.7%), although similar to the values commonly found for this species under intensive rearing conditions (Fernández et al, 2009;Dionísio et al, 2012), may indicate that fish were potentially stressed in captivity and would, therefore, be more susceptible to the negative effects of higher temperature and CO 2 levels. Nevertheless, this fact does not exclude the amplifying effect that warming and hypercapnia had on the incidence of skeletal deformities.…”

“…Nevertheless, growth enhancement with temperature might also present some disadvantages, because faster larval growth was accompanied by an increase in the incidence of skeletal deformities. Indeed, temperature is known to be one of the most important environmental factors that can induce morphological deformities during fish development (Aritaki and Seikai, 2004;Georgakopoulou et al, 2010;Dionísio et al, 2012). Additionally, pH may also affect the prevalence of fish skeletal deformities (Lall and Lewis-McCrea, 2007).…”

“…Larvae were stained for bone and cartilage using a modification of the method described by Walker and Kimmel (Walker and Kimmel, 2007), and observed under a stereoscopic microscope (Leica S6D, Leica Microsystems) in order to identify skeletal deformities. Skeletal deformities were defined according to previously established methods (Wagemans et al, 1998;Gavaia et al, 2002;Deschamps et al, 2008;Fernandez et al, 2009;Dionísio et al, 2012). Deformities were divided into several categories according to the affected structure (e.g.…”

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“…In this instance, when the sampling intensity increases, malformations are expected to appear also in other species. Besides, according to Dionísio et al (2012), the sensitivity of fishes to pollutants or to the other stressors seems to be species specific. Bobe and Labbe (2010) explain this interspecific variation with different resistance levels of genetic materials of fishes.…”

Preliminary Evaluation of Moniliformin as a Potential Threat for Teleosts

“…For assessment of skeletal deformities, larvae were submitted to whole mount double staining of cartilage and bone according to the procedure by Gavaia et al [23] and analyzed by stereomicroscopy observation and imaging. The incidence, typology and charge of skeletal deformities were determined in the axial and cranial skeletons of stained and cleared specimens [24].…”