Growing evidence suggests that ocean acidification (OA) may affect animal behaviors such as feeding. Although gustation plays a crucial role in evaluating the quality and palatability of food and ultimately influences whether or not teleosts consume the food, the potential impact of OA on gustation-mediated feeding behavior remains unknown. In this study, gustation mediated-feeding behavior, as indicated by the consumption rate (CR) and swallowing rate (SR) of agar pellets with or without feed upon OA exposure was investigated in black sea bream (Acanthopagrus schlegelii). Results showed that the exposure to acidified seawater led to significant reductions in the CR and SR of feed-containing agar pellets. In addition, the in vivo contents of three neurotransmitters and expression of genes from the gustatory signal transduction pathway were all significantly suppressed by the OA treatment. In general, the data obtained indicated that OA may hinder the gustation-mediated feeding behavior of A. schlegelii by disrupting gustatory signal transduction, which may aggravate the issue of food shortage for wild populations of black sea bream.

越来越多的证据表明，海洋酸化（OA）可能会影响动物的行为，例如进食。尽管味觉在评估食物的质量和适口性中起着至关重要的作用，并最终影响硬骨鱼是否食用食物，但是OA对味觉介导的进食行为的潜在影响仍然未知。在这项研究中，我们研究了黑海鲷（Acanthopagrus schlegelii）中食用或不食用OA的琼脂小球的食用速率（CR）和吞咽速率（SR）所表明的口感介导的进食行为。结果表明，暴露于酸性海水中会导致含饲料的琼脂颗粒的CR和SR显着降低。另外，体内OA处理可显着抑制三种神经递质的含量和味觉信号转导途径的基因表达。在一般情况下，所获得的数据表明，OA可能阻碍的味觉介导的取食行为A.许氏通过破坏味觉信号转导，这可能加剧粮食短缺的问题，为黑鲷的野生种群。