Zai-Zhong Chen

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Verified

Zai-Zhong verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Research Director at Shanghai Ocean University

High temperature restricts the survival and growth of aquatic organisms. Probiotics have significant potential for mitigating the negative effects of temperature stress on fish. In this study, the American shad (Alosa sapidissima), a temperature-sensitive freshwater fish, was selected as the experimental paradigm to dissect the underlying mechanism...

Aquatic organisms face substantial challenges from climate change, particularly due to rising water temperatures, which significantly impact their growth and survival. This investigation utilized 960 Koi carp (Cyprinus carpio koi) (Initial Body Weight, 0.304 ± 0.005 g). After a 10-day acclimatization period, the fish were distributed equally across...

This study investigated the effects of astaxanthin, a carotenoid supplement, on the physiology and coloration of juvenile blood parrotfish cultured in a recirculating aquaculture system. Fish were divided into three groups: a control group fed a basal diet for 84 days, a coloration (ASX) group fed an astaxanthin-enriched diet for 84 days, and a dec...

Discus fish, Symphysodon spp., have a unique parental care strategy where the fry feed on their parents’ skin mucus after hatching. Here, lipidomics was employed to compare the skin mucus lipid profiles of male or female discus fish during parental and non-parental care. By multivariate statistical analysis, clear separations were found between par...

Biofloc technology, extensively used in intensive aquaculture systems, can prompt the formation of microbial aggregates. Microplastics (MPs) are detected abundantly in aquaculture waters. This study explored the effects of MPs on biofloc formation, microbial community composition and nitrogen transformation function in simulated biofloc aquaculture...

Discus Symphysodon spp. employs an unusual parental care behavior where fry feed on parental skin mucus after hatching. Studies on discus immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) especially during parental care are scarce. Here, a total of 518 IgSF members were identified based on discus genome and clustered into 12 groups, unevenly distributing on 30 lin...

Microplastics (MPs) exposure generally triggers oxidative stress in fish species and vertebrate pigmentation is commonly influenced by oxidative stress, but MPs-induced oxidative stress on fish pigmentation and body color phenotype has not been reported. The aim of this study is to determine whether astaxanthin could mitigate the oxidative stress c...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution has been extensively investigated in natural fishery waters, but studies on intensive aquaculture systems are scarce. Here, the occurrence and properties of MPs were investigated and compared between four different aquaculture systems nearby the Yangtze Estuary. The average MPs concentration was in order of recirculati...

Oscar Astronotus ocellatus (Agassiz, 1831), an Amazonian cichlid, has normal and amelanism varieties, but studies on its amelanism mechanism are scarce. Here, we investigated the ultrastructure, metabolome, and transcriptome profiles of skin from normal and amelanistic individuals. We found more stellate-shaped melanophores, mature melanosomes and...

The plastisphere refers to biofilm formation on the microplastic (MP) surface, but its subsequent functions, especially driving the nitrogen biogeochemical cycle, are rarely studied. Here, MPs were incubated in the pelagic water and benthic water-sediment interface of an aquaculture pond, and the two corresponding microcosms amended with incubated...

To investigate the effects of dietary astaxanthin on fish growth and body color, blood parrotfish juveniles were assigned to three groups: control (CL), fed a diet without astaxanthin supplementation for 12 weeks; coloration (ASTA+), fed a diet containing 0.45 g/kg astaxanthin for 12 weeks; decoloration (ASTA-) fed the diet supplemented with astaxa...

Aims: To investigate the gut microbiota communities of reciprocal hybrids and inbred lines of koi (Cyprinus carpio) and goldfish (Carassius auratus), as well as the genetic effect of intestinal microbiota between hybrids and parents. Methods and results: The reciprocal hybrids and inbred lines derived from the parents, koi and goldfish, were est...

As detriments in aquatic environments, microplastics (MPs) have been commonly studied on organisms, but tissue-scale effects of MPs were poorly understood. Discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus), herewith, were exposed to polystyrene MPs (0/20/200 μg/L) for 28 d. We found that MPs significantly inhibited growth performance. MPs were observed in s...

Oscar Astronotus ocellatus is an important ornamental fish, including albino and wild varieties. Albino individuals attract aquarium hobbyists due to their unique body color, but studies on the species' albinism mechanism are currently scarce. Here, we investigated the morphological and transcriptomic profiles of the skin of albino and wild Oscar....

Astaxanthin improves the concentration of pigment cells, chromatic parameters, villus height, and thickness in blood parrotfish. More so, astaxanthin increases blood HDL-C and decreases liver LDL-C in blood parrotfish.

Aquatic animals can be influenced by exposure to microplastics (MPs), but little is known about their recovery capacity following MPs excretion. Here, common carp were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of MPs for 30 days and followed by MPs excretion for another 30 days. Growth, isotopic and elemental compositions and intestinal mi...

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) on growth performance and tissue Ca and P deposition of juvenile discus fish Symphysodon haraldi. Discus with an initial body weight of 4.98 ± 0.26 g were fed three times daily with one of the 12 experimental diets contain...

Numerous studies have investigated neurobehavioral toxicity of microplastics, but no studies have illustrated mechanism via brain-gut axis. Here, juvenile discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) were exposed for 96 h to microfibers (900 µm, fiber, MFs) or nanoplastics (~88 nm, bead, NPs) with three concentrations (0, 20 and 200 µg/L). Accumulation...

Discus fish (Symphysodon haraldi) is an important ornamental species. There are significant individual growth differences in the same batch of fry under the same feeding conditions. Such differences can greatly influence the efficiency and profitability of discus farming. Gut microbiota plays an important role in fish nutrition metabolism and growt...

Parental care is common in mammals and allows offspring to obtain milk, a substance rich in a range of nutritional and non-nutritional factors crucial to the survival of newborns. The discus fish Symphysodon spp., an Amazonian cichlid, shows an unusual behaviour: Free-swimming fry bite on their parents' skin mucus for growth and development during...

Discus (Symphysodon spp.) is among the most popular ornamental fish for warm-water and species that tolerates low temperature should be preferred by discus farmers due to costs in heating aquaria. Here, we compared the antioxidant responses and oxidative stress to decreased temperatures in gills of two discus species (S. haraldi and S. aequifasciat...

Discus fish have a variety of body colors including pigmentary and structural colors, studies on specific substances and related metabolic pathways associated with body coloration, however, are scarce to the present. Here, we used single-color (blue, yellow and white) of discus for comparative metabolomics analysis of pigmentary and structural colo...

Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead carp (H. nobilis) are the most common filter-feeding fish species. Distinct niches of these two species lead to differences in their ecological function. Here, high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was employed to investigate and compare the bacterial community and potential function of si...

Discus fish (Symphysodon haraldi) is an important ornamental fish. Owing to its unique parental care behavior, there are generally four feeding stages from fry to adult. Gut microbiota plays an important role in fish nutrition metabolism. Different food resources may potentially affect the structure and function of host intestinal microbiota. Howev...

The discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) is an ornamental fish that is well-known around the world. In artificial reproduction, they must be matched by one male and one female, whereas phenotype investigation indicated that there are no significant differences in appearance between males and females, which causes great difficulties in the matin...

Microplastics (MPs) serve as a niche for colonization of biofilm-forming microorganisms, termed as plastisphere. Distinct microbial assemblages between MPs and surrounding waters have been well reported, but little is known about driving factors affecting biofilm development on plastic surfaces. Here, to investigate the influence of plastic colors...

Microplastics (MPs) are widely distributing in aquatic environment. They are easily ingested by aquatic organisms and accumulate in digestive tract especially of intestine. To explore the potential effects of MPs on intestine, here we, using juvenile guppy (Poecilia reticulata) as model organism, investigated the response characteristics of digesti...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution becomes a research hotspot and many studies focus on threats of MPs, but few have integrated multi-level indicators to assess response to MPs of organisms. Here we exposed guppy (Poecilia reticulata) to MPs (polystyrene; 32-40 μm diameter) with two concentrations (100 and 1000 μg/L) for 28 days. We found that higher ac...

Skin mucus has been demonstrated to provide stress biomarkers for evaluating the physiological status, providing new convenient and non‐invasive methods to detect stress response in fish. Here, we investigated the anaesthetic efficacy of tricaine methanesulphonate (MS‐222; 75–115 mg/L) for discus Symphysodon aequifasciata (34.27 ± 4.46 g; 8.10 ± 0....

Discus fish Symphysodon spp. employs an unusual parental care where fry feed on parental skin mucus after hatching. Here, we investigated the mucus metabolites of parental and non-parental discus by using non-targeted metabolomics. Statistical analysis of the skin mucus metabolome revealed sex-dependent changes of mucus between parental and non-par...

The discus fish (Symphysodon spp.) is an endemic species of the Amazon that is among the most popular ornamental fish around the world, and is usually used as the model animal for studying the diversification of Amazon fish. Here, a comparative analysis of two species of discus fish, i.e., S. haraldi and S. aequifasciatus, based on several antioxid...

The discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) is an ornamental fish that is well-known around the world. Phenotype investigation indicated that there are no significant differences in appearance between males and females of the discus fish. To better understand the sexual development mechanisms and obtain a high efficiency sex identification method...

A 56‐day experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of dietary vitamin C and vitamin E on the growth, antioxidant status and digestive enzyme activities of discus fish (Symphysodon haraldi; initial body weight: 7.96 ± 0.61 g and body length: 5.45 ± 0.65 cm). Animals were fed with 13 different diets including one control diet and 12 treat...

Discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) is a cichlid that is among themost popular fish forwarm-water aquaria and also frequently used as the model animal for environmental science. However, little is known about the responses of S. aequifasciatus to low temperatures caused by environmental variation. Here, by using conventional biochemical assays...

A 56 days experiment was carried out to examine the effects of nine different diets on the growth and biochemical composition of discus fish Symphysodon haraldi tissues. Nine different types of diets were created using three main ingredients (beef heart, duck heart, and shrimp meat) in varying proportions, i.e., 10:0:0 (F1), 9:0:1 (F2), 8:0:2 (F3),...

A 63 d experiment was conducted to investigate the dietary protein demand of juvenile Blue Discus (Symphysodon haraldi). Five isoenergetic and isolipidic diets were formulated to contain graded levels of crude protein (CP), i.e., 50% (CP50), 55% (CP55), 60% (CP60), 65% (CP65) and 70% (CP70). The results showed that survival rate was not affected by...

Knowledge on the impacts of microplastics (MPs) pollution on freshwater environments and biota remains limited. Meanwhile, freshwater ecosystems have been threatened by elevated temperatures caused by climate change. To date, no information exists on how MPs-especially under elevated temperature conditions-affect predatory performance, digestive pr...

A 70-day experiment was conducted to investigate the optimal dietary macroalgae and substitute proportion by corn starch in juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Sea cucumbers were fed by eighteen different diets formulated with one of the three macroalgae including Sargassum muticum, Gracilaria lemaneiformis and Ulva lactuca and six graded...

A 70-day experiment was conducted to examine the effects of different macroalgal meals and lipid sources on growth, body wall composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Two macroalgal meals including Sargassum muticum (SM) and Gracilaria lemaneiformis (GL) and two lipid sources including fish oil (FO) and vegeta...

A 28-day experiment was conducted to investigate the temporal variations in cellular energy allocation (CEA), oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and activities of energy metabolism related enzymes in discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) exposed to decreased water temperatures. The steady temperature decrease (1 °C/day) from control (28 °C) to low te...

Discus fish (Symphysodon haraldi) is a well-known and economical ornamental fish. In this study, RNA-seq technology was applied to de novo assemble a gonad transcriptome of discus fish, and to discover sex-related genes. Assembly of these reads generated 115,050 transcripts, corresponding to 97,074 non-redundant unigenes, with an average length of...

Carbon stable isotopes were used as trophic markers to investigate the utilization of dietary terrestrial-source carbohydrates by sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Sea cucumbers were fed by five different types of diets with the ingredients containing Sargassum muticum either without starch or with one of the four starches including corn starch,...

To assess the effects of dietary xanthophyll on the growth and body color of discus fish (Symphysodon sp.), xanthophyll was added into the basal diet (beef heart hamburg) with the levels of 0, 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 mg/kg, respectively. The six experimental diets were fed to discus fish with an initial body weight of (10.3±0.3) g for 8 weeks. Th...

To assess the effects of dietary astaxanthin on the growth and body colour of red discus fish (Symphysodon spp.), synthetic astaxanthin was added into the basal diet (beef heart hamburger) with the levels of 0 (control diet), 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 mg kg−1 respectively. The six experimental diets were fed to discus fish with an initial body weig...

Ten microsatellite markers were used to analyze the levels of genetic diversity and inbreeding in a hatchery release population of Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye (Scyphozoa: Rhizostomatidae). A total of 85 alleles were detected in 600 individuals. Within-population levels of observed (H o) and expected (H e) heterozygosity ranged from 0.152 to 0.8...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Mekong tiger fish Datnioides undecimradiatus (Perciformes: Datnioididae) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,534 bp, includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of the...

In this study, the mitochondrial genome of Melanotaenia praecox Weber and de Beaufort, 1922(Atheriniformes: Melanotaeniidae) was sequenced for the first time. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,536 bp, includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs genes and 1 putative control region. The overall base composition of M....

In this study, the mitochondrial genome of Melanotaenia australis Castelnau, 1875 (Atheriniformes:Melanotaeniidae) was sequenced for the first time. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,530 bp, includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, two ribosomal RNAs genes and one putative control region. The overall base composition of M. austra...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Indonesian tiger fish Datnioides microlepis (Bleeker 1854) (Perciformes: Datnioididae) has been sequencedby next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,439 bp, includes 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base compos...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the broad-nosed pipefish Syngnathus typhle (Linnaeus, 1758) (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,488bp, includes 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base compo...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the big-belly seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis (Lesson, 1827) (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae), has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome is 16 521 bp in length which includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The over...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the altum angelfish Pterophyllum altum (Pellegrin, 1903) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The mitogenome consists of 16 495 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of P. altum is 27.5% for A, 30.3% for...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Symphysodon aequifasciatus has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The mitogenome consists of 16 545 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of the fish is 28.8% for A, 30.1% for C, 15.0% for G, and 26.1%...

In this study, the mitochondrial genome of Melanotaenia boesemani (Allen & Cross, 19801. Allen GR, Cross NJ. (1980). Description of five new rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) from New Guinea. Rec. W. Austral. Mus. 8:377–96View all references) (Atheriniformes: Melanotaeniidae) was sequenced for the first time. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of Protomelas annectens Regan 1922 has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16 583 bp, includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs genes and 1 control region. The overall base composition of P. annectens is 27.41% for A, 3...

In this study, the mitochondrial genome of Glossolepis incisus (Weber 1907 ) (Atheriniformes: Melanotaeniidae) was sequenced for the first time. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16 529 bp, includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs genes and 1 putative control region. The overall base composition of G. incisus is 27....

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Symphysodon haraldi (Schultz, 1960) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The mitogenome consists of 16 543 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of the fish is 28.8% for A, 30.1% for C, 15.0% for G, a...

The complete mitochondrial genome of Symphysodon discus Heckel was 16 544 bp in length, consisting of 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal rRNA genes, and a control region or displacement loop (D-loop). With the exception of 8 tRNAs and ND6 genes, the others were encoded on H-strand. The base composition on H-strand was 30.04% C, 28....

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Parkinson's Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia parkinsoni (Atheriniformes: Melanotaeniidae) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome is 16 529 bp in length including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base compositio...

Ten microsatellite loci were used for analyzing six populations of goldfish (Carassius auratus) with sarcoma. It showed that there was the highest genetic diversity among the white oranda with red cap (RC) population, and the lowest among the white tigerhead (WT) population. However, the outcross existed among every population. There was huge genet...

The sarcoma structure of goldfish was first analyzed by frozen section technique. The present study revealed the alkaline and acid phosphatase distribution in the head sarcoma of goldfish. And the histochemical staining in situ by calcium-cobalt method and lead nitrate method displayed a large amount of alkaline and acid phosphatases in the head sa...

The midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus) is an important aquarium fish that has served as a model organism for studying sympatric speciation. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of the midas cichlid. We report that the cichlid’s mitochondrial genome is a circular DNA double strand of 16,521 bp length, which contains 13...

This study assessed the effects of three kinds of carotenoids on the body colour of solid red discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus axelrodi Schultz, 1960). Astaxanthin, xanthophylls and canthaxanthin were added into the beef heart diet at the level of 350 mg kg−1 respectively. In the astaxanthin group (group A), the carotenoid concentration (CC)...

Abstract The Redhead cichlid (Vieja synspila) is an important aquarium fish and a useful phylogenetic organism of the Cichlidae family. In this study, we sequenced the mitochondrial genome of the Redhead cichlid for the first time. The mitogenome (16,543 bp) had the typical mitochondrial characteristics of other cichlid fish, including 13 protein-c...

Tetraploid induction was carried out by inhibiting mitosis I in fertilized eggs ofChlamys farreri. Mitosis I was blocked with cold shock (5–7°C), Cytochalasin B (0.75 mg/L) and 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) (60–75 mg/L) when 60% fertilized eggs released polar body II at 20°C. At 4-cells embryo stage, the ploidy was determined by counting chromosom...