The swimming performance and genomic insights into diverse bacterial taxa and brain transcriptome in grass carp induced by water flow stress

Water flow velocity plays a crucial role in shaping the physiological performance and genetic responses of aquatic species. Additionally, the high-water flow stress could potentially affect the fish swimming behavior, which is an important factor for fish swimming behavior. Therefore, in this study the impact of water flow stress on fish swimming performance, genomic insights associated with intestinal bacterial communities, alongside brain transcriptome was observed. A total of 40 healthy Ctenopharyngodon idella were selected and divided into four groups. Firstly, each group was exposed to different water velocities (Low 0.5 BL/s; Medium 1.5 BL/s, and High 2.0 BL/s) for two hours per day for five days respectively. The water velocity induced fish were further transferred into normal tanks (0.0 BL/s) for further studies. Additionally, the swimming performance was checked, which showed a significant reduction in swimming performance in the high-water velocity induced group (p < 0.05). Moreover, 16s rRNA sequencing revealed that the water flow stress significantly increased the potential pathogenic bacteria such Aeromonas and Vibrio (p < 0.05), which could further hinder the fish immunity of fish resulting in a decrease in swimming performance. The transcriptome additionally confirmed the regulation of immune response genes (p < 0.05) and some enrichment pathways including behavior (p < 0.05***), skeletal system development (p < 0.05***), hormone activity (p < 0.05***), muscle contraction (p < 0.05**), locomotion (p < 0.05*), and swim bladder development (p < 0.05*) in velocity induced groups, which could potentially play a role in fish swimming behavior. The current study could significantly highlight the importance of integrating fish physiology, microbiome research, and brain transcriptome to better understand how environmental stressors influence aquatic species in rapidly changing ecosystems, global warming, climate change and human induced activities.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Mian Adnan, China Three Gorges University (zoology863@gmail.com)

Authors:

Mian Adnan, China Three Gorges University  (zoology863@gmail.com)

Shi Xiaotao, China Three Gorges University, China  (fishlab@163.com)