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Effects of dietary proline on growth, physiology, biochemistry and TOR pathway-related gene expression in juvenile spotted drum Nibea diacanthus

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  • Aquaculture
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Abstract

Amino acids can act as signaling molecules in protein synthesis and animal growth by regulating several genes in the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway. An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to examine the effects of dietary proline on growth performance, body composition, amino acid profiles, blood-biochemistry and expression of TOR pathway-related genes in juvenile Nibea diacanthus. Fish (450 juvenile N. diacanthus) were assigned to six dietary proline supplementation groups (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 and 12.5 g kg−1 of dry diet). The results revealed that the growth performance and feed utilization of N. diacanthus were not significantly improved with dietary proline level (P > 0.05). Whole-body crude protein and some amino acids in muscle tissue were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by the supplemental dietary proline, while the levels of hepatic GOT and GPT increased significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing levels of dietary proline. The transcript level of TOR in muscle was significantly affected by dietary proline level, while the mRNA levels of 4EBP, S6K1, TSC and GTPBP in muscle were relatively unaffected. In conclusion, our results indicate that (1) dietary proline promotes protein synthesis, and (2) proline may promote protein synthesis by regulating the transcription of TOR but not 4EBP, S6K1, TSC and GTPBP.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all laboratory members for technical advice and valuable help during the feeding trial and sample analysis. This research was supported by grant no. 2016ZR14 from the Natural Science Youth Research Foundation of Yunnan Agricultural University, grant no. 2018FG001-044 from the Yunnan Province Agricultural Basic Research Joint Project and grant no. 2016KQNCX058 from Young Creative Talents, Major Scientific Research Projects of Guangdong University Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, People’s Republic of China

    Hua Rong

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biology, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, People’s Republic of China

    Hua Rong, Fan Lin, Jun Yu, Chuanqi Yu, Haoran Zhang, Jude Juventus Aweya & Xiaobo Wen

  3. Department of Food Safety Technology, China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou, 510642, People’s Republic of China

    Yunlong Zhang

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  1. Hua Rong
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Correspondence to Xiaobo Wen.

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Rong, H., Lin, F., Zhang, Y. et al. Effects of dietary proline on growth, physiology, biochemistry and TOR pathway-related gene expression in juvenile spotted drum Nibea diacanthus. Fish Sci 86, 495–506 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-020-01414-4

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