Effects of replacing microalgae with an artificial diet on pearl production traits and mineralization-related gene expression in pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii

Abstract

The effects of replacing dietary microalgae with artificial diet on pearl production traits and biomineralization‐related gene expression were investigated in pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii). Three experiment groups (EG1, EG2 and EG3) were set. EG1 and EG3 were separately fed Platymonas subcordiformis and artificial diet (D4), respectively, and EG2 was fed with mixed P. subcordiformis and D4. A control group (CG) was cultured in natural sea. All groups were continuously fed for 150 days. The results showed that the survival rates of EG1, EG2 and EG3 were significantly higher than that of CG. No significant differences in retention rate and pearl thickness were observed among the four groups, but CG had the lowest values of both parameters. The relative expression levels of EGFR and FGF18 mRNA did not significantly differ among EG1, EG2 and EG3. Moreover, the relative expression levels of GHITM and TβR I mRNA significantly varied among the groups and EG3, and EG1 had the highest and lowest relative expression levels of GHITM and TβR I mRNA respectively. The relative expression levels of nacrein and chitin‐binding mRNA significantly differed among the groups, and EG1 had the lowest expression levels of nacrein and chitin‐binding mRNA. No significant differences in the relative expression levels of MSI60 and TIMP mRNA were observed among the groups. The results suggested that D4 can replace part of microalgae, which is helpful for further studies on developing artificial diet of pearl oyster.

Metabolomics Responses of Pearl Oysters (Pinctada fucata martensii) Fed a Formulated Diet Indoors and Cultured With Natural Diet Outdoors

“…Therefore, this process hardly satisfies food requirements for industrial farming development. In previous studies, formulated diets were shown to partially or completely replace microalgae in bivalves (Nevejan et al, 2009 ; Gui et al, 2016 ; Wang et al, 2016 ; Yang et al, 2017a , b ). Nevertheless, commercially and biologically reliable artificial diets have yet to be prepared to substitute live microalgal feed for pearl oysters.…”

“…Pinctada fucata martensii is the main pearl oyster species cultured for marine pearl production in China and Japan. In Southern China, production of this organism peaked in the 1990s with an annual yield of 20 tons (Yang et al, 2017a ). However, pearl yield has steadily declined because of the slow growth and mass mortality of the cultured stock and environmental deterioration (Qiu et al, 2014 ).…”

Collective Locomotion of Human Cells, Wound Healing and Their Control by Extracts and Isolated Compounds from Marine Invertebrates

“…It is one of the most important bivalves for the production of marine pearls all over the world and especially of the round «South China Sea pearls» that are typical of southern China. Despite the remarkable performance observed in the 90s [135], the rearing of this species subsequently decreased also due to environmental deterioration [136]. For this reason, this organism is commonly used to study the levels of environmental pollution, the effects of pollutants on the health of marine organisms, and the influence of various environmental stressors, such as changes in water temperature due to climate modification, on aquaculture yields.…”

Effect of Oral Administration of Active Peptides of Pinctada Martensii on the Repair of Skin Wounds

“…Peptide fingerprinting of 21 characteristic peptides in APs was performed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The molecular weights of APs were in the range 1512.83 Da to 2241.05 Da (amino acid residue [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Two peptide fragments of Gln-Leu and Asp-Leu recurred in the 21 characteristic peptide sequences.…”

“…Pinctada martensii is the main shellfish for growing pearls in coastal areas such as Guangdong and Guangxi in southern China [17]. The Pinctada martensii mantle containing cells that secrete nacre plays an important role in the formation of the shell.…”