View article

Muscle growth mechanisms are controlled by different cellular and molecular pathways, and dietary supplementation of nucleotides (NTs) may play an important role to influence such pathways in fish. In this study, we hypothesized that dietary supplementation of inosine monophosphate (IMP) would enhance cellular muscle growth, and upregulate growth-related gene expression in juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Five isonitrogenous (40% crude protein) and isocaloric (20.3 KJ/g diet) test diets were formulated by supplementing 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8% IMP in casein and fishmeal based semi-purified diet. Triplicate groups of juvenile Nile tilapia (0.59 ± 0.1 g) were stocked in 15 fiberglass tanks (150 L capacity), arranged in a simple biological filters-based closed system, with stocking density of 25 individuals per tank. The feed was applied at a daily feeding rate of 10% body weight (BW) initially and …