Titolo: Notho-Diet: from chemosensory perception to husbandry standardization

Bando: PRIN

Durata: 24 mesi

Coordinatore: PROF.SSA LIVIA D'ANGELO

Budget BCA: € 68.000,00

Responsabile scientifico: prof. Giuseppe Radaelli

Research Team: Radaelli Giuseppe

Abstract: In the last decades, the short-lived fish the African turquoise killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, has been proposed as promising vertebrate model in ageing research. Despite the increasing number of experimental approaches designed to disentangle the mechanisms underlying the biological process of ageing in turquoise killifish, there is a lack of fundamental knowledge on the biology of taste and smell, essential sensory systems for many vital functions, such as food intake, reproduction and social interactions in all vertebrates. Thanks to their key role in mediating and integrating feed sensorial characteristics, taste and smell are at the forefront of food intake. Here, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to i) gather fundamental knowledge on the chemosensory systems of turquoise killifish; ii) formulate experimental diets based on the nutritional requirements of the model species; iii) analyze the chemical, physical and organoleptic compositions of the diets to identify components and compare relative acceptance and preference by turquoise killifish; iv) evaluate the food preference and or the habituation to the experimental diet formulations versus the standard diet; v) assess the effects of the experimental diets in comparison to the standard diet on glycoconjugate secretion of digestive tract, growth performance, stress and oxidative stress and inflammatory status along the lifespan of turquoise killifish. The proposal is designed to expand fundamental knowledge on the biology of turquoise killifish sensory systems as essential link for future applications in the process of diet standardization. The ultimate goal is indeed to lay down the basis for the diet standardization, which remains one of the main challenges in the process of standardization of husbandry of turquoise killifish. Under standard laboratory conditions, this fish is prevalently fed with frozen or live bloodworms which have numerous drawbacks such as the risk of disease insertion, chemical contamination of food affecting physiology, seasonal availability or instability of nutritional content and high waste production, with detrimental consequences in studies of the mechanisms underlying the biological phenomenon of ageing. Therefore, characterization of nutritionally balanced diet formulations as replacement to bloodworm coupled with morpho-physiological analysis of sensory responses and evaluation of animal health and welfare status along lifespan of turquoise killifish is a step forward to ensuring the welfare of this fish species and contributing to the process of husbandry standardization.