Long-term effects of high carbohydrate feeding in Nile tilapia broodstock on intermediary and carbohydrate metabolism in offspring through juvenile stage

Hyperglucidic stimulation involving high-carbohydrate (CHO) feeding in broodstock could be a practical tool for achieving nutritional programming (NP) in fish. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of high-CHO (HC) feeding stimuli on reproductive performance, and intermediary CHO metabolic responses in broodstock and its long-term impact on CHO and related metabolism in offspring. Two different CHO diets, HC/low-protein (LP) and low-CHO/high-protein (LC/HP), were fed to mature female and male Nile tilapia. The HC/LP diet in female broodstock led to decreased egg weight, but increased fecundity and gonadosomatic index compared with that with the LC/HP diet. In females and males, blood metabolites, hepatic and muscular compositions, and CHO and its related metabolic responses at the molecular level reflected HC feeding. Similar CHO intermediary metabolic responses were found in offspring at 7-days post-hatching and 7 days after the first feeding, suggesting that the parental effects of CHO intermediary metabolism could be transmitted to offspring at early developmental stages. Modulation of intermediary CHO metabolic responses persisted in the juvenile offspring, with increased hepatosomatic index and hepatic triglyceride levels, muscular glycolysis induction, and suppression of hepatic gluconeogenesis and amino acid catabolism. Juvenile offspring fed the HC diet also had more pronounced intermediary CHO metabolism, including glycogenesis, lipogenesis, glycolysis induction, muscular glucose transport, and suppression of hepatic gluconeogenesis and amino acid catabolism. Collectively, the HC diet-mediated hyperglucidic stimuli in broodstock induced NP effects in offspring, which persisted through the juvenile stage.