Register for free and participate in the EAStalk webinar on July 18th at 14:00h CET with Stuart McMillan and Alvaro Belenguer. They will present two 15-minute presentations as part of the results of the AquaIMPACT project. 

Title of the presentation: "Nutritional programming in Atlantic salmon"
Short summary of the presentation: After a brief look at nutritional programming in salmonids we’ll focus on our AquaIMPACT trial investigating the early utilisation of a vegetable-based feed coupled with different pigment genotypes in Atlantic salmon. Specifically, this presentation will look at whether the effects of nutritional programming extend to seawater stages and the possible interactions between genotype and early nutrition strategies.

Small biography:
Stuart McMillan is post-doctoral research fellow, based at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling. He has over 10 years’ experience with the aquaculture industry, predominantly in Scotland, and is currently working on projects investigating the effects of nutritional programming in Atlantic salmon. His interests include novel feed ingredients and understanding the mechanisms underpinning efficient utilization of nutrients in raw materials to increase the health and quality of fish and improve the sustainability of our industry. Previously, Stuart’s PhD focused on virulence factor discovery in fish bacterial pathogens, and he is also keen to use next generation sequencing applications to further our knowledge in this field.

Title of the presentation: "Nutritional programming in gilthead sea bream: interplay between epigenetics and genetics"
Short summary of the presentation: In gilthead sea bream broodstock nutritional programming improves the offspring utilization of plant-based diets through changes in hepatic metabolism. Although attention was initially focused on fatty acid desaturases, this strategy can involve a wide range of processes and can be driven by a different genetic background. The presentation will focus on the AquaIMPACT experiment to assess how broodstock nutrition affects differentially the transcriptome and genome-wide DNA methylome of reference and genetically selected fish within the PROGENSA® selection program. Results will be explained to show that gene expression profiles and methylation signatures in response to nutritional programming are dependent on genetic background in our experimental model and that broodstock programming in the selected fish serves to prevent and mitigate later in life the risk of hepatic steatosis through changes in hepatic lipogenesis and fatty acid metabolism.

Small biography:
Dr. Alvaro Belenguer is a tenured scientist in the Institute of Aquaculture of Torre de la Sal, Spain. He has previously worked on different subjects related to nutrition and metabolism in terrestrial species, including rumen lipid metabolism and the microbial groups involved in dairy sheep. In early 2022 he joined the Nutrigenomics and Fish Growth Endocrinology group, led by Dr. Jaume Pérez-Sánchez, where he focused his research on the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of gene expression in response to a nutritional programming strategy in gilthead sea bream, as a model of the Mediterranean Aquaculture, which is his main current interest. He is also involved in studies investigating the utilization of new fish feeds based on alternative and sustainable raw material for fast and effcient growth of Mediterranean farmed fish and in holistic approaches to identify new fish biomarkers of both diagnostic and prognostic value using new biotechnological tools and omic methods.

Visit AquaIMPACT website here.

Register for free here.