THE IMPACT OF NUTRIEPIGENOMICS IN FISH IMMUNE RESPONSE

The massive salmon farming has brought a significant increase in infectious diseases, thereby generating economic losses. The constant interaction of cultured fish with pathogens makes it necessary to search for new alternatives to reduce the mortalities generated by infectious diseases.

Epigenetics studies are all those non-genetic factors that are involved in the expression or gene silencing, without interfering with the DNA sequence. These mechanisms determine the degree of DNA packaging and therefore the ability to express a gene in the correct space and time, which it is crucial to emergence of physiological phenotypes

DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) is an important epigenetic enzyme involucrate in DNA methylation. This study explores the effect of use natural DNMT inhibitors, as supplement in diet of salmonids.

We observed that DNA methyltransferase inhibitors treatments were able to modulate the mRNA expression of DNMT and interferon system genes Figure 2.

In consequence, the inhibition of DNMT enhancer the expression of interferon system genes and improve the fish response to infection with necrosis pancreatic infectious virus (IPNV). Figure 3.

Our work suggest that epigenetic mechanisms modulated trough diet, can impact the antiviral host genes expression which open a new frontier of development of epigenetics functional supplements to aquaculture feeding.