Zebrafish as animal model for aquaculture nutrition research

Abstract

The aquaculture industry continues to promote the diversification of ingredients used in aquafeed in order to achieve a more sustainable aquaculture production system. The evaluation of large numbers of diets in aquaculture species is costly and requires time-consuming trials in some species. In contrast, zebrafish (Danio rerio) can solve these drawbacks as an experimental model, and represents an ideal organism to carry out preliminary evaluation of diets. In addition, zebrafish has a sequenced genome allowing the efficient utilization of new technologies, such as RNA-sequencing and genotyping platforms to study the molecular mechanisms that underlie the organism’s response to nutrients. Also, biotechnological tools like transgenic lines with fluorescently labeled neutrophils that allow the evaluation of the immune response in vivo, are readily available in this species. Thus, zebrafish provides an attractive platform for testing many ingredients to select those with the highest potential of success in aquaculture. In this perspective article aspects related to diet evaluation in which zebrafish can make important contributions to nutritional genomics and nutritional immunity are discussed.

Kluyveromyces fragilisRNA extract supplementation promotes growth, modulates stress and inflammatory response in zebrafish

“…Concomitantly to the above‐mentioned fields, aquaculture is one of the research areas in which zebrafish is gaining importance for better understanding the production processes of commercial species (Ribas & Piferrer, ; Ulloa, Medrano, & Feijoo, ).…”

“…Actually, many investigations for improving husbandry, survival, growth, nutrition and immune response have been performed in zebrafish, and are claiming to supply results which could be transferred to important commercial fish species (Oyarbide, Rainieri, & Pardo, ; Ulloa et al., ).…”

Genomics in Aquaculture to Better Understand Species Biology and Accelerate Genetic Progress

“…This species diversity also presents an issue for choosing suitable model organisms to inform on the biology of the farmed species of interest. Model finfish species, such as zebrafish, have been well-characterized and Ulloa et al (2014) highlight their utility for the evaluation of the response to alternative diets. However, due to the vast evolutionary distance between certain farmed aquatic and model species, it is clear that direct research on the species of interest can often be the most feasible and informative.…”

Digestive enzymatic activity during ontogenetic development in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

“…In particular, the transparency typical of the larval stages, enabling the visualization of internal organs under the microscope with relative ease, has allowed the proliferation of a number of studies focused on different aspects of the digestive system development (Biemar et al, ; Wallace and Pack, ; Wallace et al, ; Ulloa et al, ). In zebrafish, larval individuals may be considered physiologically equivalent to adults, since during the larval period all the organs and systems are functional (Hawkyard et al, ; Ulloa et al, , ). This observation justifies the key role played by zebrafish as a model for nutrition and growth studies, to improve fish larviculture, growth performance, and to test probiotic effects, although information about nutritional requirements and optimal feeding during early zebrafish development is lacking (Kaushik et al, ).…”