The influences of parental diet and vitamin E intake on the embryonic zebrafish transcriptome

The composition of the typical commercial diet fed to zebrafish can dramatically vary. By utilizing defined diets we sought to answer two questions: 1) How does the embryonic zebrafish transcriptome change when the parental adults are fed a commercial lab diet compared with a sufficient, defined diet (E +)? 2) Does a vitamin E-deficient parental diet (E −) further change the embryonic transcriptome? We conducted a global gene expression study using embryos from zebrafish fed a commercial (Lab), an E + or an E − diet. To capture differentially expressed transcripts prior to onset of overt malformations observed in E − embryos at 48 h post-fertilization (hpf), embryos were collected from each group at 36 hpf. Lab embryos differentially expressed (p < 0.01) 946 transcripts compared with the E + embryos, and 2656 transcripts compared with the E − embryos. The differences in protein, fat and micronutrient intakes in zebrafish fed the Lab compared with the E + diet demonstrate that despite overt morphologic consistency, significant differences in gene expression occurred. Moreover, functional analysis of the significant transcripts in the E − embryos suggested perturbed energy metabolism, leading to overt malformations and mortality. Thus, these findings demonstrate that parental zebrafish diet has a direct impact on the embryonic transcriptome.