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Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction

The European eel migrates 5,000–6,000 km to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Because they venture into the ocean in a pre-pubertal state and reproduce after swimming for months, a strong interaction between swimming and sexual maturation is expected. Many swimming trials have been performed in 22 swim...

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Autores principales: Palstra, Arjan P., van den Thillart, Guido E. E. J. M.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20390348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10695-010-9397-4
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author Palstra, Arjan P.
van den Thillart, Guido E. E. J. M.
author_facet Palstra, Arjan P.
van den Thillart, Guido E. E. J. M.
author_sort Palstra, Arjan P.
collection PubMed
description The European eel migrates 5,000–6,000 km to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Because they venture into the ocean in a pre-pubertal state and reproduce after swimming for months, a strong interaction between swimming and sexual maturation is expected. Many swimming trials have been performed in 22 swim tunnels to elucidate their performance and the impact on maturation. European eels are able to swim long distances at a cost of 10–12 mg fat/km which is 4–6 times more efficient than salmonids. The total energy costs of reproduction correspond to 67% of the fat stores. During long distance swimming, the body composition stays the same showing that energy consumption calculations cannot be based on fat alone but need to be compensated for protein oxidation. The optimal swimming speed is 0.61–0.67 m s(−1), which is ~60% higher than the generally assumed cruise speed of 0.4 m s(−1) and implies that female eels may reach the Sargasso Sea within 3.5 months instead of the assumed 6 months. Swimming trials showed lipid deposition and oocyte growth, which are the first steps of sexual maturation. To investigate effects of oceanic migration on maturation, we simulated group-wise migration in a large swim-gutter with seawater. These trials showed suppressed gonadotropin expression and vitellogenesis in females, while in contrast continued sexual maturation was observed in silver males. The induction of lipid deposition in the oocytes and the inhibition of vitellogenesis by swimming in females suggest a natural sequence of events quite different from artificial maturation protocols.
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spelling pubmed-29237122010-09-10 Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction Palstra, Arjan P. van den Thillart, Guido E. E. J. M. Fish Physiol Biochem Article The European eel migrates 5,000–6,000 km to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Because they venture into the ocean in a pre-pubertal state and reproduce after swimming for months, a strong interaction between swimming and sexual maturation is expected. Many swimming trials have been performed in 22 swim tunnels to elucidate their performance and the impact on maturation. European eels are able to swim long distances at a cost of 10–12 mg fat/km which is 4–6 times more efficient than salmonids. The total energy costs of reproduction correspond to 67% of the fat stores. During long distance swimming, the body composition stays the same showing that energy consumption calculations cannot be based on fat alone but need to be compensated for protein oxidation. The optimal swimming speed is 0.61–0.67 m s(−1), which is ~60% higher than the generally assumed cruise speed of 0.4 m s(−1) and implies that female eels may reach the Sargasso Sea within 3.5 months instead of the assumed 6 months. Swimming trials showed lipid deposition and oocyte growth, which are the first steps of sexual maturation. To investigate effects of oceanic migration on maturation, we simulated group-wise migration in a large swim-gutter with seawater. These trials showed suppressed gonadotropin expression and vitellogenesis in females, while in contrast continued sexual maturation was observed in silver males. The induction of lipid deposition in the oocytes and the inhibition of vitellogenesis by swimming in females suggest a natural sequence of events quite different from artificial maturation protocols. Springer Netherlands 2010-04-14 2010 /pmc/articles/PMC2923712/ /pubmed/20390348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10695-010-9397-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2010 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Palstra, Arjan P.
van den Thillart, Guido E. E. J. M.
Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title_full Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title_fullStr Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title_full_unstemmed Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title_short Swimming physiology of European silver eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
title_sort swimming physiology of european silver eels (anguilla anguilla l.): energetic costs and effects on sexual maturation and reproduction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20390348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10695-010-9397-4
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