Feeding Preferences and the Nutritional Value of Tropical Algae for the Abalone Haliotis asinina

Understanding the feeding preferences of abalone (high-value marine herbivores) is integral to new species development in aquaculture because of the expected link between preference and performance. Performance relates directly to the nutritional value of algae – or any feedstock – which in turn is driven by the amino acid content and profile, and specifically the content of the limiting essential amino acids. However, the relationship between feeding preferences, consumption and amino acid content of algae have rarely been simultaneously investigated for abalone, and never for the emerging target species Haliotis asinina. Here we found that the tropical H. asinina had strong and consistent preferences for the red alga Hypnea pannosa and the green alga Ulva flexuosa, but no overarching relationship between protein content (sum of amino acids) and preference existed. For example, preferred Hypnea and Ulva had distinctly different protein contents (12.64 vs. 2.99 g 100 g−1) and the protein-rich Asparagopsis taxiformis (>15 g 100 g−1 of dry weight) was one of the least preferred algae. The limiting amino acid in all algae was methionine, followed by histidine or lysine. Furthermore we demonstrated that preferences can largely be removed using carrageenan as a binder for dried alga, most likely acting as a feeding attractant or stimulant. The apparent decoupling between feeding preference and algal nutritive values may be due to a trade off between nutritive values and grazing deterrence associated with physical and chemical properties

The Response Of 2 Estuarine Benthic Communities To The Quantity And Quality Of Food

Experimental manipulations of food supply were performed on soft sediment cores from two European estuaries, the Westerscheldt and the Gironde, with a view to determining benthic macrofaunal community response. Over a period of twenty weeks in a laboratory mesocosm system, both communities showed losses in terms of numbers of individuals and small, but non-significant, losses in terms of numbers of species. Whereas no effect of the different types of foods or the dose levels at which they were supplied was detected for the Westerscheldt benthic community, that of the Gironde showed some significant response. This was largely attributed to the differential mortality of spionid polychaetes across the dose levels used, with the highest dose, equivalent to 200 g C m–2 yr–1, only just maintaining their initial population densities. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of lateral advection of food particles at the benthic boundary layer and the general insufficiency of many estimates of carbon input to shallow benthic systems

Quantitative and temporal requirements revealed for Zap70 catalytic activity during T cell development

The catalytic activity of Zap-70 is crucial for T cell receptor (TCR) signaling, but the quantitative and temporal requirements for its function in thymocyte development are not known. Using a chemical-genetic system to selectively and reversibly inhibit Zap-70 catalytic activity in a model of synchronized thymic selection, we showed that CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes integrate multiple, transient, Zap-70-dependent signals over more than 36 h to reach a cumulative threshold for positive selection, whereas one hour of signaling was sufficient for negative selection. Titration of Zap-70 activity resulted in graded reductions in positive and negative selection but did not decrease the cumulative TCR signals integrated by positively selected OT-I cells, revealing heterogeneity, even among CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes expressing identical TCRs undergoing positive selection