ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1594751

This article is part of the Research TopicTowards Sustainable Marine Aquaculture: Innovations and Eco-Friendly PracticesView all 11 articles

Pterocladia capillacea Polysaccharide Enhances Growth, Immunity, Digestive Enzyme, Antioxidant Activities, and Gene Expressions of Litopenaeus vannamei

Provisionally accepted
Mohamed  AshourMohamed Ashour1*Fawzia  S AliFawzia S Ali1Ahmed  MamoonAhmed Mamoon2Ahmed  I A MansourAhmed I A Mansour1Mohamed  M MabroukMohamed M Mabrouk2Abdallah  Tageldein MansourAbdallah Tageldein Mansour3*Ehab  MohamedEhab Mohamed4*Ahmed  F AbdelhamidAhmed F Abdelhamid2
  • 1National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Alexandria, Egypt
  • 2Fish Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
  • 3Department of Fish and Animal Production, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Hassa, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
  • 4College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, AlAin, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This work evaluated the effects of dietary supplementation with the seaweed polysaccharide (PS) extracted from red seaweed, Pterocladia capillacea, on the growth, feed efficiency, whole-body composition, immunological response, antioxidant activity, digestive enzyme activities, and gene expression of the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Four isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets with different SP levels were formulated. The basal experimental diet (control diet) had no seaweed polysaccharide added (PS 0 ). Diets 2-4 (PS 1 , PS 2 , and PS 3 ) were formulated to contain PS at levels of 1, 2, and 3 g/kg diet, respectively. Six hundred postlarvae (PLs 15 ; with an initial body weight of 1.62±0.12 g/PL) of the whiteleg shrimp L. vannamei were randomly selected and distributed into triplicate hapas per treatment. For the duration of the 60-day trial, the PLs were fed their corresponding diets three times a day at 10% of their body weight.Compared with those in the control diet and PS 3 , the shrimp reared in groups PS 1 or PS 2 showed significant (p < 0.05) improvements in the specific growth rate, survival rate, length gain rate, and weight gain rate. The individuals in the PS 2 group showed the greatest significant (p < 0.05) values of the feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency ratio, and protein efficiency ratio. In addition, the shrimps in the PS 2 group showed the highest significant values (p < 0.05) of lysozyme, amylase, lipase, and SOD, and the highest significant value of MDA, whereas the shrimp in the PS 3 group showed the highest significant values (p < 0.05) of catalase. The expression levels of investigated growthrelated genes (GH, IGF-1, and IGF-II) and immunity-related genes (Proph, SOD, and Lys) in the PS 2 group were significantly (p < 0.05) increased. In conclusion, the supplementation rate of 2 g/kg PS significantly improved the growth, nutrient utilization efficiency, nonspecific immunity, antioxidant and digestive enzyme activities, and improved the immunity-and growth-related gene expression of L. vannamei shrimp.However, future works are recommended to understand the mechanism by which PS enhances physiological status and modulate genes expression in whiteleg shrimp.

Keywords: Gene Expression, innate immunity, Pterocladia capillacea, Polysaccharides, Physiological status, Shrimp feed

Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ashour, Ali, Mamoon, Mansour, Mabrouk, Mansour, Mohamed and Abdelhamid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Mohamed Ashour, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Alexandria, Egypt
Abdallah Tageldein Mansour, Department of Fish and Animal Production, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Hassa, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
Ehab Mohamed, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, AlAin, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.