Growth, osmotic response and transcriptome response of the euryhaline teleost, Oreochromis mossambicus fed different myo-inositol levels under long-term salinity stress

Myo-inositol (MI) as a major intracellular osmolyte can be accumulated to protect cells from a variety of stress. The present study was to evaluate the effects of dietary MI on growth, osmotic response and transcriptional response in the liver of euryhaline fish Oreochromis mossambicus under long-term salinity stress. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were formulated to include 0 (MI0), 200 (MI200), 400 (MI400), 800 (MI800) and 1600 (MI1600) mg/kg MI. In this study, dietary 400 mg/kg MI significantly increased the weight gain and specific growth rate of O. mossambicus compared with the group without dietary MI supplementation under salinity stress. Moreover, dietary MI decreased serum glucose and insulin levels of fish under long-term salinity stress. Fish fed 400 mg/kg MI supplementation had significantly higher serum cortisol, sodium (Na⁺) and chloride ion (Cl⁻) than those fed a diet without MI supplementation. A total of 132.17 million and 115.8 million clean reads were obtained from the 0 mg/kg MI (MI0) and 400 mg/kg (MI400) MI group respectively. Compared with the MI0 group, the expression of 704 genes was significantly changed (521-up and 183-down) in the MI400 group under long-term salinity stress. Transcriptome results indicate that myo-inositol can regulate lipid and pyruvic acid metabolism, increase phospholipid synthesis-related mRNA levels and improve antioxidant properties of O. mossambicus under long-term salinity stress. This study suggests that optimum MI supplementation is 400 mg/kg in the diet based on weight gain against dietary MI and this result provides a nutritional solution for tilapia to cope with salinity stress.