Divergent personalities influence the myogenic regulatory genes myostatin, myogenin and ghr2 transcript responses to Vibrio anguillarum vaccination in fish fingerlings (Sparus aurata)

Myogenic regulators of muscle development, metabolism and growth differ between fish species in a context-specific manner. Commonly, the analysis of environmental influences on the expression of muscle-related gene regulators in teleosts is based on differences in swimming performance, feeding behaviour and stress-resistance, but the evaluation of behavioural phenotyping of immune and stress-related responsiveness in skeletal muscle is still scarce. Here we challenge proactive and reactive fingerlings of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), one of the most commonly cultured species in the Mediterranean area, with highly pathogenic O1, O2α and O2β serotypes of Vibrio anguillarum, a widespread opportunistic pathogen of marine animals, to analyse skeletal muscle responses to bath vaccination. Transcripts related to inflammation (interleukin 1β, il1β; tumour necrosis factor-α, tnfα; and immunoglobulin M, igm), and muscle metabolism and growth (lipoprotein, lpl; myostatin, mstn-1; myogenin; and growth hormone receptors type I and II, ghr1 and ghr2, respectively) were analysed. Biochemical indicators of muscle metabolism and function (creatine kinase, CK, aspartate aminotransferase, AST; esterase activity, EA; total antioxidant status, TAC and glucose) were also determined. Our results indicate that proactive, but not reactive, fish respond to Vibrio vaccination by increasing the expression levels of mstn-1, myogenin and ghr2 transcripts at short-/medium- term (1 to 3 days’ post vaccination). No effect of vaccination was observed in immune indicators or biochemical parameters in either phenotypes, except for elevated levels of EA in reactive fish one-week post vaccination. This suggests that behavioural divergence should be taken into account to evaluate the crosstalk between immune, metabolic and growth processes in muscle of immune-challenged fish.