Biochemical studies on the interactive effects of dietary choline and inositol in juvenile Kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus Bate

A 42-day feeding trial was conducted using a 2 × 3 factorial design to evaluate the effect and interaction of choline chloride (CC) and myo-inositol (MI) on juvenile Kuruma shrimp Marsupenaeus japonicus (initial size 0.93 ± 0.01 g; mean ± S.D.). Six test diets were formulated to contain 3 levels of CC (0, 0.06 and 0.12%) and 2 levels of MI (0 and 0.4%). A significant (P < 0.05) interaction was determined between CC and MI on the survival percentage, percent weight gain, specific growth rate, feed efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio and both phospholipids and phosphatidylinositol content of the whole body of the juvenile M. japonicus. Control shrimp fed no supplemental CC or MI showed lower (P < 0.05) values of the above-mentioned parameters than shrimps fed 0.06 and 0.12% supplemented CC with or without MI supplementation. The present study showed that supplementation of 0.12% dietary CC could compensate Kuruma-shrimp juveniles with the needed phospholipids when fed MI-deficient diets. Also, the supplementation of MI was needed in the case of feeding Kuruma-shrimp juveniles CC-deficient diets to compensate phospholipid deficiency.