The study of effect of vitamin C and Achyranthes aspera seeds enriched diets on the growth, biochemical composition, digestive enzyme activities and expressions of genes involved in the biosynthesis of fatty acids in Snow trout Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray, 1832)

ABSTRACT

Snow trout, Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray, 1832), is an economically important fish in the Himalayan region. Snow trout fry (118.53 ± 5.42 mg) were cultured in flow-through systems for 60 days. Fry were fed with four different diets containing: 0.08% vitamin C (D1), 0.5% Achyranthes aspera seeds (D2), both vitamin C and seeds (D3), and a control (D4). Average weight (271.82 ± 4.90 g) and specific growth rate (1.39 ± 0.03) were significantly higher in fish fed D3 compared to the others. Digestive enzyme activities were significantly higher in D3 compared to the others. EPA content was significantly higher in D2 (110.33 ± 0.94 mg 100 g⁻¹) and D3 (109.87 ± 1.87 mg 100 g⁻¹); DHA (342.70 ± 0.77 mg 100 g⁻¹) and n-3 PUFA (496.17 ± 1.82 mg 100 g⁻¹) contents were significantly higher in D3 compared to the others. The expression of fads2d6 was significantly higher in D3 (6.70-fold) and elovl5 in D2 and D3 (1.51–1.45-fold) compared to the others. Enriched diets improved fish flesh composition.

KEYWORDS:

• Schizothorax richardsonii
• Vitamin C
• Achyranthes aspera
• DHA and EPA
• fads2d6 and elovl5

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director, DCFR, ICAR, India for providing the experimental facility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

RC, JGS, GK, and SC designed the experiment; GK and SC conducted the experiment; GK, RKG, NK, and AKS analyzed the samples; RC, JGS, and GK prepared the manuscript; GK and NK prepared the tables and figures.

D ata a vailability statement

The data that support the finding of this study are available within the article.

Ethical clearance

The ethical clearance for conducting this experiment was approved by the animal ethics committee of the University of Delhi. Protocol No - DU/ZOOL/IAEC-R/02/2019.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Govt. of India [3/1/3/JRF-2017/HRD-LS/55340/01].