Biophysical evaluation of physiological effects of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) farming using FTIR spectroscopy

Sparus aurata is one of the two most important cultured fish species in the Mediterranean region. The present work investigates the effects of culturing in S. aurata liver tissue at the molecular level using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. FTIR spectroscopy revealed dramatic differences between the wild and aquacultured fish liver cells, which mainly indicated that the level of glycogen increased in the aquacultured samples and the protein/lipid ratio decreased by 42.29% indicating that triglycerides and cholesterol esters increased and the protein content decreased in the aquacultured samples. The 15.99% increase in the level of unsaturation indicated elevated lipid peroxidation. Structural/organisational changes in the nucleic acids along with increased transcriptional status of the liver tissue cells were observed in the cultured fish tissue. All these results indicated that culturing induces significant changes in fish physiology. In addition FTIR spectroscopy is a promising method to monitor the physiological changes in fish physiology.