Digestive enzymes and gut morphometric parameters of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus): Influence of body size and temperature.

ABSTRACT: Determining digestive enzyme activity is of potential interest to obtain and understand valuable information about fish digestive physiology, since digestion is an elementary process of fish metabolism. We described for the first time (i) three digestive enzymes: amylase, trypsin and intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP), and (ii) three gut morphometric parameters: relative gut length (RGL), relative gut mass (RGM) and Zihler's index (ZI) in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), and we studied the effect of temperature and body size on these parameters. When mimicking seasonal variation in temperature, body size had no effect on digestive enzyme activity. The highest levels of amylase and trypsin activity were observed at 18°C, while the highest IAP activity was recorded at 20°C

SUBMITTER: Hani YMI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5882091 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature