Dietary iron affects lipid deposition, nutritional element, and muscle quality in coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

We investigated effect of dietary iron (Fe) on the lipid deposition, nutritional element, and muscle quality in coho salmon. Four level Fe diets at 23.7, 46.4, 77.3, and 127.7 mg/kg were fed to the post-larval coho salmon for 12 weeks. Our results showed that dietary Fe decreased the content of triglyceride and the activity of fatty acid synthetase, ATP-citrate lyase, and acetyl-CoA carboxylase. The content of Fe in muscle was increased with increasing dietary Fe levels, and dietary Fe affected the content of nutritional elements. In addition, dietary Fe levels affected the composition of fatty acids and the content of free amino acids, and increased muscle fiber size. The lower dietary Fe levels also affected the hardness, chewiness, resilience, springiness, cohesiveness, and gumminess of salmon muscle. In all, dietary Fe inhibited the lipid deposition and affected the content of nutritional element and muscle quality in coho salmon.