Sex-specific compensatory growth in food-deprived Nile tilapia

Genotype-by-sex-by-diet interactions for nutritional preference, dietary consumption, and lipid deposition in a field cricket

Changes in feeding behaviour, especially the overconsumption of calories, has led to a rise in the rates of obesity, diabetes, and other associated disorders in humans and a range of animals inhabiting human-influenced environments. However, understanding the relative contribution of genes, the nutritional environment, and their interaction to dietary intake and lipid deposition in the sexes still remains a major challenge. By combining nutritional geometry with quantitative genetics, we determined the effect of genes, the nutritional environment, and their interaction on the total nutritional preference (TP), total diet eaten (TE), and lipid mass (LM) of male and female black field crickets (Teleogryllus commodus) fed one of four diet pairs (DPs) differing in the ratio of protein to carbohydrate and total nutritional content. We found abundant additive genetic variance for TP, TE, and LM in both sexes and across all four DPs, with significant genetic correlations between TE and TP and between TP and LM in males. We also found significant genotype-by-DP and genotype-by-sex-by-DP interactions for each trait and significant genotype-by-sex interactions for TE and LM. Complex interactions between genes, sex, and the nutritional environment, therefore, play an important role in nutrient regulation and lipid deposition in T. commodus. This finding may also help explain the increasing rate of obesity and the maintenance of sex differences in obesity observed across many animal species, including humans.

Fitness implications of sex-specific catch-up growth in Nephila senegalensis, a spider with extreme reversed SSD

BACKGROUND

Animal growth is often constrained by unfavourable conditions and divergences from optimal body size can be detrimental to an individual's fitness, particularly in species with determinate growth and a narrow time-frame for life-time reproduction. Growth restriction in early juvenile stages can later be compensated by means of plastic developmental responses, such as adaptive catch-up growth (the compensation of growth deficits through delayed development). Although sex differences regarding the mode and degree of growth compensation have been coherently predicted from sex-specific fitness payoffs, inconsistent results imply a need for further research. We used the African Nephila senegalensis, representing an extreme case of female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD), to study fitness implications of sex-specific growth compensation. We predicted effective catch-up growth in early food-restricted females to result in full compensation of growth deficits and a life-time fecundity (LTF) equivalent to unrestricted females. Based on a stronger trade-off between size-related benefits and costs of a delayed maturation, we expected less effective catch-up growth in males.

METHODS

We tracked the development of over one thousand spiders in different feeding treatments, e.g., comprising a fixed period of early low feeding conditions followed by unrestricted feeding conditions, permanent unrestricted feeding conditions, or permanent low feeding conditions as a control. In a second experimental section, we assessed female fitness by measuring LTF in a subset of females. In addition, we tested whether compensatory development affected the reproductive lifespan in both sexes and analysed genotype-by-treatment interactions as a potential cause of variation in life-history traits.

RESULTS

Both sexes delayed maturation to counteract early growth restriction, but only females achieved full compensation of adult body size. Female catch-up growth resulted in equivalent LTF compared to unrestricted females. We found significant interactions between experimental treatments and sex as well as between treatments and family lineage, suggesting that family-specific responses contribute to the unusually large variation of life-history traits in Nephila spiders. Our feeding treatments had no effect on the reproductive lifespan in either sex.

DISCUSSION

Our findings are in line with predictions of life-history theory and corroborate strong fecundity selection to result in full female growth compensation. Males showed incomplete growth compensation despite a delayed development, indicating relaxed selection on large size and a stronger trade-off between late maturation and size-related benefits. We suggest that moderate catch-up growth in males is still adaptive as a 'bet-hedging' strategy to disperse unavoidable costs between life-history traits affected by early growth restriction (the duration of development and adult size).

Does sex influence intraspecific aggression and dominance in Nile tilapia juveniles?

Although sex of mature fish is known to influence aggression, this issue has so far been neglected in juveniles. Here, we tested this sex effect and showed that it does not significantly affect intraspecific aggression in juveniles of the cichlid Nile tilapia. To reach this conclusion, we measured the latency period before onset of confrontation, the frequency and types of aggressive interactions, the duration of a dispute, and the probability of becoming dominant. This was done on pairs of Nile tilapia that varied by sex: females×females, males×males, and females×males. In a double blind approach, after pairing, the sex of each individual was histologically verified and contrasted with behavioral data.

Pubertal effects of 17α-methyltestosterone on GH-IGF-related genes of the hypothalamic-pituitary-liver-gonadal axis and other biological parameters in male, female and sex-reversed Nile tilapia

The influence of 17α-methyltestosterone (MT) on growth responses, biological parameters and the expression of genes involved in the GH-IGF pathway of the hypothalamic-pituitary-liver-gonadal axis were investigated in female, male, and sex-reversed Nile tilapia to evaluate the relationship between sex and MT-induced changes in these parameters. Female fish had a lower growth rate than male and sex-reversed fish, and MT increased growth performance and duodenal villi in females. Most but not all biological parameters of sex-reversed fish were similar to those of male fish. Male fish had higher red blood cell counts and hemoglobin levels than female and sex-reversed fish, suggesting that these hematological indices reflect a higher metabolic rate in male fish. Greater blood triglyceride levels indicated the vitellogenin process in female fish. MT increased the alternative complement activity in female fish (P<0.05). Sex and MT had no significant effects on the hypothalamic mRNAs of GHRH and PACAP. Although not statistically significant, females tended to have higher GH mRNA levels than male and sex-reversed fish. Additionally, MT tended to decrease and increase GH mRNA levels in female and male fish, respectively. There were significant differences among sexes in the expression of GHR, and IGF mRNAs at the peripheral level in the liver and gonads. Females had lower hepatic GHRs and higher ovarian GHRs than male and sex-reversed fish. While the mRNA levels of IGF-1 were lower in the ovary, the levels of IGF-2 were higher compared with those in testes. A significant correlation between GHRs and IGFs was demonstrated in the liver and gonad (except for IGF-1). Multiple regression analysis showed a significant relationship between GH mRNA and both GHRs and IGFs in the liver and gonad. MT exerted androgenic and, to some extent, estrogenic effects on several physiological parameters and GH-IGF action.

Cloning, tissue distribution and effects of food deprivation on pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP)/PACAP-related peptide (PRP) and preprosomatostatin 1 (PPSS 1) in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

Full-length complementary deoxyribonucleic acid sequences encoding pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP)/PACAP-related peptide (PRP) and preprosomatostatin 1 (PPSS 1) were cloned from Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) hypothalamus using reverse transcription and rapid amplification of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid ends. Semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction shows that PRP/PACAP mRNA and PPSS 1 mRNA are widely distributed throughout cod brain. During development, PRP/PACAP and PPSS 1 were detected at the 30-somite stage and pre-hatching stage, respectively, and expression levels gradually increased up to the hatched larvae. PPSS 1, but not PRP/PACAP, appeared to be affected by food availability during early development. In juvenile cod, PPSS 1 expression levels increased and remained significantly higher than that of control fed fish throughout 30 days of starvation and during a subsequent 10 days refeeding period. In contrast, PRP/PACAP expression levels were not affected by 30 days of food deprivation, but a significant increase in expression levels was observed during the 10 days refeeding period in the experimental food-deprived group as compared to the control fed group. Our results suggest that PRP/PACAP and PPSS 1 may be involved in the complex regulation of growth, feeding and metabolism during food deprivation and refeeding in Atlantic cod.

Time-place learning in food-restricted Nile tilapia

Time-place learning based on food association was investigated in eight food-restricted Nile tilapias. Each fish was individually housed for 10 days in an experimental tank for adjustments to laboratory conditions, and fed daily in excess. Feeding was then interrupted for 17 days. Training was then started, based on a food-restricted regime in a tank divided into three interconnected compartments. Daily food was offered in one compartment (left or right side) of the tank in the morning and on the opposite side in the afternoon, for a continuous 30-day period. Frequency of choices on the right side was measured on days 10, 20 and 30 (during these test days, fish were not fed). Following this 30-day conditioning period, the Nile tilapias were able to switch sides at the correct period of the day to get food, suggesting that food restriction facilitates time-place learning discrimination.

Halquinol modulated growth, physiology, and protein profile and halquinol residue withdrawal study in the Indian major carp Catla catla (Hamilton)

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of halquinol, an antimicrobial used as a growth promotor in poultry, on the fresh water fish Catla catla in terms of growth promotion, protein profile, and physiology as the rate of oxygen consumption. A synergic increment in the free amino acid level and total protein concentration suggested enhanced anabolic metabolism resulting in weight gain. When compared with an untreated control group, fishes treated with 0.1% halquinol (T1) showed a higher weight gain than those treated with 0.2% halquinol (T2). Variations in the rate of oxygen consumption among the three groups (control, T1, T2) expressed the physiological response of the animals toward the chemical along the time factor. After 7 days of treatment, the absence of halquinol revealed by post-withdrawal residual HPLC studies suggests its biosafety.