Lu Sun , Kaikai Liu , Xiaoyi Shi , Xia Fang , Daode Yu , Yongjiang Xu , Hui Wang , Jingjing Song , Yong Fan , Fuli Li
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The aquaculture industry's expansion necessitates sustainable strategies to enhance aquatic animal health and production. This study evaluates Mychonastes afer—a microalga rich in nervonic acid—as a novel aquafeed supplement for marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma), focusing on growth, intestinal health, and reproduction. Fish fed high-concentration M. afer exhibited 10.04 % polyunsaturated fatty acid content, surpassing the 8.80 % in controls, alongside improved growth metrics. While M. afer enhanced gut microbial diversity, its primary reproductive benefits included an 8.86–9.33 % higher embryo fertilization rate compared to C. sorokiniana and blank groups. Under nickel exposure (5–20 mg/L), larvae from M. afer-supplemented environments demonstrated superior resilience: at 10 mg/L Ni, hatching rates in M. afer and C. sorokiniana groups remained stable, while controls dropped from 73 % to 52.84 %. Abnormalities were lowest in M. afer larvae (26 % vs. 30–37 % in other groups), with a 1-day delay in irreversible developmental damage. These findings highlight M. afer's ability to address nutritional gaps in conventional feeds, promoting growth, stress tolerance, and reproductive success in medaka. Nervonic acid in M. afer may further mitigate neurotoxicity and support neural regeneration, underscoring its potential as an eco-friendly aquafeed alternative to enhance aquaculture productivity under heavy metal stress.
期刊介绍:
Algal Research is an international phycology journal covering all areas of emerging technologies in algae biology, biomass production, cultivation, harvesting, extraction, bioproducts, biorefinery, engineering, and econometrics. Algae is defined to include cyanobacteria, microalgae, and protists and symbionts of interest in biotechnology. The journal publishes original research and reviews for the following scope: algal biology, including but not exclusive to: phylogeny, biodiversity, molecular traits, metabolic regulation, and genetic engineering, algal cultivation, e.g. phototrophic systems, heterotrophic systems, and mixotrophic systems, algal harvesting and extraction systems, biotechnology to convert algal biomass and components into biofuels and bioproducts, e.g., nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, plastics, etc. algal products and their economic assessment