ABSTRACT: Metabolic processes and sexual maturation closely interact during the long-distance reproductive migration of many fish species to their spawning grounds. In the present study, we have for the first time used exercise experimentally to investigate the effects on sexual maturation in rainbow trout. Pubertal autumn-spawning seawater-raised female rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (n=26; 50-cm, 1.5-kg) were rested or swum at a near optimal speed of 0.75 body-lengths per second in a 6,000 L swim-flume under natural reproductive conditions (16 °C fresh-water, starvation, 8h-light:16h-dark photoperiod). Fish were sampled after arrival and subsequently after 10 days (resting or swimming 307 km) and 20 days (resting or swimming 636 km). Ovarian development was significantly reduced in the swimmers. Analysis of the expression of key factors in the reproductive axis included pituitary kiss1-receptor, lh and fsh and ovarian lh-receptor, fsh-receptor, aromatase and vitellogenin-receptor (vtgr). Swimmers had lower pituitary lh and ovarian vtgr expression than resters. Furthermore, the number of late vitellogenic oocytes was lower in swimmers than in resters, probably resulting from the lower vtgr expression, and vitellogenin plasma levels were higher. Therefore, swimming exercise suppresses oocyte development possibly by inhibiting vitellogenin uptake. Transcriptomic changes that occurred in the ovary of exercised fish were investigated using a salmonid cDNA microarray platform. Protein biosynthesis and energy provision were among the sixteen functional categories that were all down-regulated in the ovary. Down-regulation of the transcriptomic response in the ovary illustrates the priority of energy reallocation and will save energy to fuel exercise. A swimming-induced ovarian developmental suppression at the start of vitellogenesis during long-term reproductive migration may be a strategy to avoid precocious muscle atrophy. In order to simulate the natural reproductive conditions of anadromous salmonids, experiments were performed with sea water-raised rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. Resters and swimmers were starved during the experiment, seawater was replaced by fresh water and photoperiod was changed. These changes were expected to affect reproductive parameters but as âbackgroundâ effect because both resters as swimmers were experiencing these conditions at the same time in the same set-up. Any additional effects in swimming fish would thus be caused by swimming only. Pubertal autumn spawning rainbow trout (n=26; ~50 cm, ~1.5 kg) were purchased from a Danish exporter (Frederiksvaerk Aleexport) where they had been raised for 2 years in freshwater followed by 4 months in sea water cages at 10 â°. They were transferred by truck within 16 h to Spakenburg (Spakenburg Paling, The Netherlands) and subsequently in the same water in a similar holding tank to the swim-flume at Leiden University (The Netherlands). The next day, 5 randomly chosen fish were sampled as âstartâ-group while others were randomly divided into a ârestâ-group (n=10) and a âswimâ-group (n=11). During the following 4 days, the brackish 10 â° water was stepwise replaced by freshwater at 16 °C and photoperiod was changed from 16L:8D to 8L:16D. Fish were then acclimatized for two days to their new conditions. Subsequently, swimmers were first swum at a speed of 0.33 body-lengths per second (BL/s) which was increased the next day to the final, near optimal speed of 0.75 BL/s (0.34 m/s or 29.4 km/day). Fish were sampled after 10 days (5 resters and 5 swimmers) and 20 days (5 resters and 6 swimmers). At sampling, fish were anesthetized using oil of cloves that was commercially purchased from a drugstore (diluted 1:10 in ethanol and used at a dosage of 1.5 ml/l). Fish were euthanized by decapitation and dissected for the ovary which was flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. RNA was isolated from pituitary and ovary samples according to the TRIZOL reagent protocol by Invitrogen (Baro, Spain). Isolated RNA was DNAse treated using RQ1 DNAse Promega (Madison, USA) and reverse transcribed using Superscript IIITM (Baro, Spain) according to the manufacturerâs protocol. Microarray analyses were performed on ovarian tissue for 20-days-swimmers vs. 20-days-resters. A rainbow trout cDNA microarray platform was used that was previously validated and described by Koskinen et al., 2004ab, Krasnov et al., 2005, MacKenzie et al., 2006ab, 2008 and Djordjevic et al., 2009, and deposited in GEO under accession number GPL1212, the original cDNA microarray (SFA2.0 chip), and GPL6154; the updated 1.8 K platform. This platform compromises 1818 genes representing 366 functional categories. Total RNA was extracted from flash frozen samples from experimental fish of the 20-days-swim group (n=5) and 20-days-rest group (n=5) like described before. Total RNA corresponding to pooled samples from the swim or rest groups was labeled with Cye3 and Cye5-dCTP (GE Healthcare, Barcelona, Spain) using SuperScript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen, Baro, Spain) and oligo(dT) primer. In our experience, reverse labeling combined with multiple replication of spots provide robust normalization and high statistical power of analyses. cDNA was purified with MicroconYM30 (Millipore). The slides were pretreated with 1% BSA(fraction V), 20 à SSC, 10% SDS (30 min at 50°C) and washed with 2 à SSC (3 min) and 0.2 à SSC (3 min) and hybridized overnight in cocktail containing 50 à Denhardt's, 20 à SSC, 10% SDS, 10μg/μl polyadenylate and 10 μg/μl yeast tRNA. All chemicals were from Sigma-Aldrich. Scanning was performed with ScanArray 5000 and images were processed with QuantArray (GSI Luminomics). The measurements in spots were filtered by criteria I/B ⥠3 and (I-B)/(SI + SB) ⥠0.6, where I and B are the mean signal and background intensities and SI, SB are the standard deviations. After subtraction of mean background, LOWESS normalization was performed. To assess differential expression of genes, the normalized log intensity ratios (expression ratio) were analyzed with Student's t-test (P <0.05). Validation of the microarray was performed by Q-PCR of 6 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) as described above. The used primers were either published (Alpha-globin I-1: Donate Jimeno, 2008) or designed, again by using the Genamics software.
