The high dietary protein requirements of salmonid fish are met with fishmeal-based feed in commercial aquaculture. The sustainability of this practice is questionable and, therefore, the feasibility of substituting fishmeal with plant-based products needs to be investigated. We investigated growth and metabolism in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed a diet composed of a mixture of plant proteins compared with those fed a fishmeal-based diet. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of liver protein extracts, we showed that the liver protein profile changed in response to the alteration in the diet. A number of metabolic pathways were identified as sensitive to the protein source substitution. These included pathways involved in primary energy generation, maintenance of reducing potential, bile acid synthesis, and transport and cellular protein degradation. Interestingly, the pathways shown to be affected in the present study were somewhat different from those identified in our previous work with soyabean-based-protein replacement of fishmeal, with the effects on the abundance of several stress response proteins notably absent. We conclude, therefore, that the metabolic effects of plant protein replacement in aquaculture feed varies with plant-protein source.
