Advisory Committee Chair
Stephen Watts
Advisory Committee Members
Dustin Kemp
Victoria Gibbs
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
1-1-2025
Degree Name by School
Master of Science (MS) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
An understanding of nutrition can improve culture of sea urchins, whether as a research model or in the production of seafood products. Macronutrients, including dietary protein sources, can affect growth and reproductive profiles and alter resource allocation to somatic and gametic tissues. Although sea urchins in culture can be fed natural products, diet formulations using various ingredients can be developed to reliably produce desired outcomes. Single-cell protein sources represent a potential alternative to current industry standards of animal-derived protein sources such as fish and squid meal, which are becoming increasingly overfished and expensive. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of replacing fish and squid meal with commercially available single-cell protein sources in diets for juvenile Lytechinus variegatus. Juvenile L. variegatus (approx. 20 g whole-body wet weight, 39 mm diameter) were collected from Port St. Joe, FL and transported to UAB, where they were housed in recirculating aquaculture systems. Following a 10-day acclimation period, sea urchins were fed one of 7 randomly assigned formulated diets for 8 weeks. Four diets contained protein from only one source: fishmeal (FP), squid meal (SP), bacteria (BP), or yeast (YP). Three additional diets contained 50% protein from fishmeal and 50% protein from either squid meal (FP/SP), bacteria (FP/BP), or yeast (FP/YP). All diet treatments supported growth and 100% survival. Somatic growth was equivalent among all treatments except BP, which showed reduced somatic growth. Decreased gonad production was observed in sea urchins fed the YP or BP diets. All sea urchins, except one in the FP treatment, readily spawned and expressed gametes at termination. All gonad samples analyzed histologically (a random subset of males and females from the FP/SP, YP, and BP treatments) were in the growing stage of the reproductive cycle, with several exhibiting high proportions of germ cells relative to nutritive phagocytes. Overall, this study indicates that the yeast and bacterial SCPs can fully or partially replace animal-derived dietary protein sources in L. variegatus formulated diets. Keywords: sea urchin, protein, single-cell protein, nutrition, gonadosomatic index, aquaculture
Recommended Citation
De Jesus, Darrien Jamila, "Effects Of Single-Cell Dietary Protein Sources On Feeding, Growth, And Resource Allocation In The Juvenile Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 6832.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6832
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