Abstract

Myogenesis is an essential event for proliferation, differentiation, migration and fusion of myoblasts during skeletal muscle development. The myogenic regulatory factors MyoD2 and myogenin are essential for the regulation of these events. In the present study, we analysed the expression of MyoD2, myogenin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in skeletal muscle of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) juveniles submitted to different nutritional conditions. For a period of 37 days fish were starved or fed daily ad libitum. Total RNA was obtained from skeletal muscle and the concentration, purity and RNA integrity was determined in each sample. Gene expression levels were determined by quantitative real time RT-PCR. Feeding increased the mRNA expression levels of MyoD2, myogenin and IGF-1 in the muscle of S. aurata compared to starved fish. The higher increase corresponded to MyoD2, suggesting that MyoD2 expression in skeletal muscle could be a sensible biomarker of nutritional condition in Sparus aurata.