During the past quarter of a century there has been considerable investigation into the effects of fluorides on living organisms. It has been well established, as a result of these studies, that both small and elevated amounts of fluorides present in the environment may have a marked toxic effect upon gaining entry into the organism. Much of the research involving fluorides and the living organism has been confined to experimentation with animals, although considerable evidence indicates that plants are also subject to injury if fluorides are present in the atmosphere or the soil. The great majority of the research dealing with effects of fluorides on animals has been confined to higher vertebrates, principally domestic farm species. The concentration of fluoride research in this area has been prompted by economic pressures arising from natural, industrial, or accidental fluoridation of livestock. For the most part, these investigations have been confined to determination of toxicity levels to various domestic species, while the mode of fluoride action upon living organisms has often been neglected. Some investigators, however, have postulated "defense mechanisms" within the organism whereby active fluoride ion is removed from systemic circulation and is either deposited in less active tissues of the body, or, is excreted in some manner. Such mechanisms would offer a degree of temporary protection of the organism from harmful effects of the fluoride ion.

Juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss stocked into mid-elevation reservoirs in Utah are vulnerable to predation from piscivorous fish and birds. I determined how effectively juvenile trout used cover to avoid these predators by (1) direct observations (snorkel transects) of habitat selection in two reservoirs and (2) measurements of survival and growth rates in a pond experiment where adult brown trout Salmo trutta were predators. Observations of juvenile trout were conducted within five weeks of stocking in 1988 and 1989. During the day, juvenile trout were abundant in complex inshore habitats and avoided simple habitats such as sand and gravel. Measurements of gut fullness indicated that juvenile trout fed during the day but not during the night. Large Daphnia comprised more than 95% of the diet of juvenile trout. Because large Daphnia were often higher offshore than inshore in both reservoirs, selection of inshore cover is believed to be primarily a response to reduce predation risk. At night, trout in both reservoirs selected more exposed areas and rested on the bottom. In the pond experiment, the presence of brown trout significantly increased mortality of juvenile trout, decreased their growth rates, and caused them to avoid offshore areas. The presence of cover significantly decreased predation rates but did not affect growth of the juvenile trout.

Effects of exercise and the relative condition of exercised fish were viii evaluated for two strains of rainbow trout. Circular tanks fitted with a paddle were used to continuously exercise the fish and a stamina tunnel was used to evaluate the condition of exercised trout. Trout were exercised continuously at one fish-length per second and one-half fish length per second. Serum LDH activity in Shephard-of-the-Hills (Missouri) rainbow trout acclimated to 10 C increased two fold during the first four days of exercise. Serum LDH activity returned to control levels by the tenth day of exercise. Serum LDH activity in Shephard-of-the-Hills rainbow trout exercised at one-half length per second did not increase significantly. Serum LDH activity in Fish Lake stock acclimated to 17 C did not increase significantly. Shephard-of-the-Hills and Fish Lake rainbow trout exercised at one length per second were better conditioned to water velocities of two lengths per second than were controls.

Different strains of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri), Ten Sleep, Sand Creek, Beitey, Shepherd-of-the-Hills, New Zealand, Fish Lake- Desmet, Desmet, were compared for survival to the creel, growth and catchability after being stocked in a fluctuating 80 ha Utah reservoir . Fish were stocked in the spring and fall as fingerlings and monitored by creel censusing, gill netting and electrofishing. Fish were tagged with coded wire snout tags prior to stocking . An angler opinion survey was conducted to determine angler satisfaction with numbers and size of fish caught. Regardless of strain, spring stocking was superior to fall stocking in survival to the creel. In the spring 78 stocking the Ten Sleep strain had the highest survival to the creel (33.7 percent), followed in order by Shepherd-of-the-Hills (11.0 percent), Beitey (5.5 percent), Sand Creek (5.4 percent), New Zealand (4.1 percent), and Fish Lake-Desmet (2 .9 percent). In the spring 79 stocking the Shepherd-of-the- Hills strain had the highest survival to the creel (7 .6 percent), followed in order by the Sand Creek (7.3 percent) and the Ten Sleep (6.5 percent). Similar trends in survival were found in gill netting and electrofishing samples. Migration out of the reservoir was negligible for each strain. There were no strain differences in catchability by different methods (shore, boat) or gear (bait, artificial lure). Differences in growth between the fastest growing strains (Ten Sleep, Sand Creek) and the slowest growing strains (New Zealand, Fish Lake-Desmet) averaged as great as 16 mm in length and 43 g in weight. Differences in growth and survival among strains were great enough to span the range of angler satisfaction with numbers caught and size of fish caught from satisfactory to unsatisfactory. Therefore, strain selection can be a useful tool to improve fingerling stocking programs and manipulate the number of anglers who are satisfied with the angling experience.

Dans le contexte du développement spectaculaire de l’aquaculture, les farines et huiles de poissons, qui étaient les composantes principales des aliments aquacoles, ont progressivement été remplacées par des mélanges de produits végétaux. Cependant, le remplacement total n’est pas encore possible sans dégrader les performances des poissons (croissance et survie). Pour continuer son développement durable, l’aquaculture doit davantage s'affranchir de ces matières premières. Une voie de progrès possible est l'utilisation de la variabilité génétique existante dans les populations de truites pour la capacité à survivre et grandir avec des aliments à base de végétaux (Aliments V). Cependant très peu d'études se sont intéressées aux mécanismes mis en place par certains génotypes pour utiliser plus efficacement ces aliments. L'objectif de la thèse était d'étudier les caractéristiques à l'origine d'une meilleure utilisation des aliments V chez différents génotypes de truite arc-en-ciel (trois lignées isogéniques et lignée sélectionnée). L'originalité de ce travail repose sur l'étude de la réponse de différentes lignées à un aliment 100 % V, en combinant des approches de physiologie nutritionnelle et de biologie moléculaire sans a priori ou ciblées. Ainsi les transcriptomes de trois lignées isogéniques, ayant des performances contrastées lorsqu'elles sont nourries avec des aliments V, ont été comparés à court et long terme. Puis des caractères liés à la nutrition, ainsi que l'expression de certains gènes, identifiés grâce à l'étude transcriptomique, ont été étudiés chez une lignée sélectionnée pour sa capacité à survivre et grandir avec un aliment V. Les résultats obtenus ont permis de conclure que l'acceptation de l'aliment V joue un rôle clef, notamment lors des stades précoces. Les résultats obtenus mettent également en avant le rôle prépondérant de la composante immunitaire qui est impactée différemment en fonction des génotypes. Finalement, après 6 mois d'alimentation, alors que le métabolisme des lipides participe à expliquer les différences d’utilisation de l’aliment V chez les lignées isogéniques, il ne parait pas déterminant chez la lignée sélectionnée. Globalement, nos résultats suggèrent l'existence d'une grande diversité de mécanismes dans les populations de truites leur permettant de survivre et grandir avec un aliment à base de végétaux dépourvu de farine et huiles de poisson. / In the context of the exponential development of aquaculture, fish meal and oils, previously the main components of aquaculture feed, have been increasingly replaced by a blend of plant products. However, total replacement is not yet possible without impairing fish performance (survival and growth). To continue its sustainable development, aquaculture must further decrease its reliance on both fish oil and fish meal. In addition to the changes in diet composition, a possible way forward is the use of the genetic variability for the ability to survive and grow with plant-based diets (V diets) existing in trout populations. However, very few studies have investigated the mechanisms implemented by some genotypes to use these diets more efficiently. The objective of this thesis was to study the characteristics that led to a better utilisation of V diet in different rainbow trout genotypes. The originality of this PhD work relies on the genetic rainbow trout lines whose responses to a 100% V diet were studied by combining nutritional physiology and molecular biology with or without a priori approaches. Thus, the transcriptomes of three isogenic lines, which have contrasting performances when fed V diets, were compared at short and long term. Then nutrition-related traits, as well as the expression of some genes identified through the transcriptomics analysis, were studied in a line selected for its ability to survive and grow with a V diet. The results obtained led to the conclusion that the acceptance of V diets plays a key role, particularly in the early stages. The results also highlight the essential role of the immune system, which is impacted differently according to genotypes. Finally, after 6 months of feeding, while lipid metabolism seems to play a role in the differences between genotypes for their ability to efficiently utilize the V diet, this pathway does not appear to play a determinant role in the selected line. Overall, our results suggest that there are a wide variety of mechanisms allowing trout to survive and grow with a total plant-based diet, devoid of both fish meal and oils.

No description available.

Energy efficiency and propulsive characteristics of a 10 cm undulatory rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss) swimming in a stationary position are considered. Two CFD simulations are performed utilizing dynamic grid meshing (FLUENT 6.3). The first simulation uses a laminar flow model with an added hydrofoil shape in order to test if thrust and drag can be brought to unity. The second simulation uses a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence model to determine if transition to turbulence along the fish's surface leads to boundary layer separation. The expected results caused by adding these two features to earlier simulations do not occur. Thrust and drag are not found to be equal with usage of the thicker fish shape; instead both thrust and drag increase by 40-80% while diverging in value. Evidence of boundary layer separation is not present with usage of the LES turbulence model. Swimming energy efficiency is calculated to be 70% in both simulations. A brief analyses of boundary layer and downstream wake are included, showing general agreement with earlier studies. Limitations of the simulation are discussed. Future work regarding the author's preparation for an additional simulation of a rainbow trout utilizing a swimming method known as the Karman Gait is also considered. This preparation includes the creation of a 2-D grid domain and programs to define the kinematics of the fish and produce a specified vortex inlet condition.

Rainbow trout are an important salmonid species whose poor utilization of dietary carbohydrates spurred research investigating molecular and physiological components of its glucoregulation. Among the environmental factors described to exert robust changes in glucose metabolism in rainbow trout, nutrition and social stress are among the most studied: Diets exceeding 20% of carbohydrates and chronic social stress induce hyperglycemia in adult and juvenile rainbow trout, respectively. Common to both responses is a contribution of hepatic de novo gluconeogenesis, which has been described to evade repression in response to high dietary carbohydrate content and to be stimulated in subordinate rainbow trout. Compared to previous studies investigating the regulation of hepatic gluconeogenesis at the molecular level, the recent publication of the annotated rainbow trout genome has opened novel possibilities to investigate paralogue-specific and posttranscriptional regulation of gluconeogenesis. In this thesis, I identify and describe the regulation of the novel phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase paralogue pck2b in rainbow trout and identify specific miRNA candidates predicted to contribute to gene paralogue-specific regulation of gluconeogenesis in nutritional and social contexts using small RNA next generation sequencing, real-time RT-PCR and in silico target prediction approaches. In nutritional and social status experiments, in silico predicted targets of differentially expressed hepatic miRNAs are enriched for gluconeogenesis regulation, suggesting a posttranscriptional component in regulating gluconeogenic transcript abundance. Differentially expressed hepatic miRNAs in both experiments comprise evolutionarily conserved and teleost-specific miRNAs, and are indicative of both environmental factor-specific and common regulation of gluconeogenesis transcripts in rainbow trout liver. Together this work provides novel comparative insight into hepatic miRNA-dependent glucoregulation and identifies several specific candidate miRNAs for future functional validation in hepatic glucoregulation in rainbow trout.

No description available.

<p>Teleosts take up metals by two major pathways: gills and/or gut. Past research is heavily focused on branchial uptake despite evidence that the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) is the dominant route in some natural environments. To address this information gap, my thesis characterizes uptake mechanisms of Cd and Ca along the GIT of <em>Oncorhynchus mykiss</em>. Toxic effects of Cd, protective effects of Ca against Cd uptake, and Cd distribution within fish after ingestion are also explored.</p> <p>Four-week dietary Cd exposure affected growth and Ca regulation, while causing toxicity at the subcellular level. Elevated Ca in diets protected against accumulation and altered subcellular handling of Cd. Pre-exposure to different diets changed unidirectional uptake and binding rates of Cd and Ca, although they remained highly correlated. Binding rates of Cd to mucus can predict absorption rates of Cd<strong>.</strong></p> <p>A variety of <em>in vitro </em>and <em>in vivo </em>experiments on four distinct GIT segments (stomach, anterior-, mid-, and posterior- intestine) were undertaken to determine specific mechanisms of Cd and Ca uptake in freshwater trout. Cd transport was unaffected by solvent drag, but was stretch- and temperature- sensitive. Strong evidence for a common pathway for Ca and Cd transport was obtained. Cd also appeared to be taken up in part by zinc (ZIP-like) transporters and the divalent metal transporter DMT1. Ca uptake along the GIT appeared to be carrier-mediated, time- and concentration- dependent, but was not affected by solvent drag, or by Na concentration. Mucosal Cd did not inhibit Ca uptake. Ca, but not Cd, uptake rates were much lower in sea water-acclimated trout. Seawater and freshwater fish accumulated similar whole body Cd concentrations when fed contaminated diets for three weeks, but the majority of Cd in seawater trout remained in the posterior intestine tissue, while freshwater trout had higher internal burdens.</p> <p>This thesis advances the knowledge of metal uptake along the GIT of trout.</p> / Doctor of Science (PhD)