SalmonSim: A synthetic salmonid intestine to test whether gut microbiota underlie variation in Atlantic salmon metabolic efficiency
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: College of Medical, Veterinary, Life Science
Abstract
Project Abstract
The Scottish Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry (worth £1.4 billion PA) predicts 30% growth by 2020. Expansion is unsustainable given the current reliance on over-exploited wild fish stocks as the food source and poor growth efficiency on alternative feeds. One cause of poor growth efficiency is inefficient digestion, linked to the fish's metabolic rate. Microbial modification of host metabolism and regulation of fat storage is thought to drive growth profile and adiposity.
A greater understanding of the role of microbial diversity in driving variation in host digestive metabolism will reveal routes to improve growth efficiency of fish fed on plant-based diets, but this requires a novel experimental approach.
We propose a new interdisciplinary PhD project that explores the contribution of the salmon gut microbiome to observed variation in host energetics (absorption, metabolism, growth) and establish the first ex-vivo synthetic teleost gut, which will act as a test-bed for microbial fermentation of novel feeds and pro, pre and synbiotics.
This project addresses themes within: Engineering for Health & Life sciences, Synthetic Biology
The Scottish Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry (worth £1.4 billion PA) predicts 30% growth by 2020. Expansion is unsustainable given the current reliance on over-exploited wild fish stocks as the food source and poor growth efficiency on alternative feeds. One cause of poor growth efficiency is inefficient digestion, linked to the fish's metabolic rate. Microbial modification of host metabolism and regulation of fat storage is thought to drive growth profile and adiposity.
A greater understanding of the role of microbial diversity in driving variation in host digestive metabolism will reveal routes to improve growth efficiency of fish fed on plant-based diets, but this requires a novel experimental approach.
We propose a new interdisciplinary PhD project that explores the contribution of the salmon gut microbiome to observed variation in host energetics (absorption, metabolism, growth) and establish the first ex-vivo synthetic teleost gut, which will act as a test-bed for microbial fermentation of novel feeds and pro, pre and synbiotics.
This project addresses themes within: Engineering for Health & Life sciences, Synthetic Biology
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