Marco Alexandre Cavaco Cerqueira
@ccmar.ualg.pt
Aquaculture Research Group
CCMAR
I am a multidisciplinary researcher with over a decade of experience dedicated to advancing responsible aquaculture and fisheries practices. Fueled by a profound passion for aquatic life, my career has centered on unraveling the complexities of fish and their welfare. My focus spans from deciphering fish behavior and social structures to exploring their adaptive responses to environmental challenges. Currently, I am immersed in innovative proteomic techniques aimed at assessing and enhancing the well-being of aquatic species. This research trajectory has deepened my understanding of the physiological and molecular aspects of fish welfare, empowering me to develop and validate strategies for improving welfare management on commercial and global scales. In addition to my scientific contributions, I actively engage in fish welfare training, experimentation, and consultancy.
EDUCATION
2012 – 2016: Ph.D. in Life and Environmental Sciences: Specialty Farming Systems - University of Algarve, Portugal, with distinction and honor.
2004 – 2006: BSc in Marine Biology and Biotechnology (2nd Cycle)
IPL – Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Mar (ESTM), with final grade of 16/20
2001 - 2004: Bachelor’s in marine biology and biotechnology (1st Cycle)
IPL – Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Mar (ESTM), with final grade of 16/20
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Aquatic Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Food Science, Multidisciplinary
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Kenneth Sandoval, Ferenc Kagan, Grace McCormack, Denise Schrama, Raquel Carrilho, Ana Paula Farinha, Marco Cerqueira, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) is an important species in Mediterranean aquaculture. Rapid intensification of its production and sub-optimal husbandry practices can cause stress, impairing overall fish performance and raising issues related to sustainability, animal welfare, and food safety. The advent of next-generation sequencing technologies has greatly revolutionized the study of fish stress biology, allowing a deeper understanding of the molecular stress responses. Here, we characterized for the first time, using RNA-seq, the different hepatic transcriptome responses of gilthead seabream to common aquaculture challenges, namely overcrowding, net handling, and hypoxia, further integrating them with the liver proteome and metabolome responses. After reference-guided transcriptome assembly, annotation, and differential gene expression analysis, 7, 343, and 654 genes were differentially expressed (adjusted p-value < 0.01, log2|fold-change| >1) in the fish from the overcrowding, net handling, and hypoxia challenged groups, respectively. Gene set enrichment analysis (FDR < 0.05) suggested a scenario of challenge-specific responses, that is, net handling induced ribosomal assembly stress, whereas hypoxia induced DNA replication stress in gilthead seabream hepatocytes, consistent with proteomics and metabolomics’ results. However, both responses converged upon the downregulation of insulin growth factor signalling and induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress. These results demonstrate the high phenotypic plasticity of this species and its differential responses to distinct challenging environments at the transcriptomic level. Furthermore, it provides significant resources for characterizing and identifying potentially novel genes that are important for gilthead seabream resilience and aquaculture production efficiency with regard to fish welfare.
João L. Saraiva, Filippo Faccenda, María J. Cabrera-Álvarez, Michele Povinelli, Peter C. Hubbard, Marco Cerqueira, Ana Paula Farinha, Giulia Secci, Maria Vittoria Tignani, Lina F. Pulido Rodriguez,et al.
Elsevier BV
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Ana Paula Farinha, Raquel Carrilho, Denise Schrama, Marco Cerqueira, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
Elsevier BV
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Ana Paula Farinha, Gavin Blackburn, Phillip D. Whitfield, Raquel Carrilho, Denise Schrama, Marco Cerqueira, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
MDPI AG
The study of the molecular mechanisms of stress appraisal on farmed fish is paramount to ensuring a sustainable aquaculture. Stress exposure can either culminate in the organism’s adaptation or aggravate into a metabolic shutdown, characterized by irreversible cellular damage and deleterious effects on fish performance, welfare, and survival. Multiomics can improve our understanding of the complex stressed phenotype in fish and the molecular mediators that regulate the underlying processes of the molecular stress response. We profiled the stress proteome and metabolome of Sparus aurata responding to different challenges common to aquaculture production, characterizing the disturbed pathways in the fish liver, i.e., the central organ in mounting the stress response. Label-free shotgun proteomics and untargeted metabolomics analyses identified 1738 proteins and 120 metabolites, separately. Mass spectrometry data have been made fully accessible via ProteomeXchange, with the identifier PXD036392, and via MetaboLights, with the identifier MTBLS5940. Integrative multivariate statistical analysis, performed with data integration analysis for biomarker discovery using latent components (DIABLO), depicted the 10 most-relevant features. Functional analysis of these selected features revealed an intricate network of regulatory components, modulating different signaling pathways related to cellular stress, e.g., the mTORC1 pathway, the unfolded protein response, endocytosis, and autophagy to different extents according to the stress nature. These results shed light on the dynamics and extent of this species’ metabolic reprogramming under chronic stress, supporting future studies on stress markers’ discovery and fish welfare research.
Denise Schrama, Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Marco Cerqueira, Raquel Carrilho, Dominique Revets, Annette Kuehn, Sofia Engrola, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
MDPI AG
Consumption of aquatic food, including fish, accounts for 17% of animal protein intake. However, fish consumption might also result in several side-effects such as sneezing, swelling and anaphylaxis in sensitized consumers. Fish allergy is an immune reaction to allergenic proteins in the fish muscle, for instance parvalbumin (PV), considered the major fish allergen. In this study, we characterize PV in two economically important fish species for southern European aquaculture, namely gilthead seabream and European seabass, to understand its stability during in vitro digestion and fish processing. This information is crucial for future studies on the allergenicity of processed fish products. PVs were extracted from fish muscles, identified by mass spectrometry (MS), and detected by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after simulated digestion and various food processing treatments. Secondary structures were determined by circular dichroism (CD) after purification by anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. In both species, PVs presented as α-helical and β-sheet structures, at room temperature, were shown to unfold at boiling temperatures. In European seabass, PV detectability decreased during the simulated digestion and after 240 min (intestinal phase) no detection was observed, while steaming showed a decrease (p < 0.05) in PVs detectability in comparison to raw muscle samples, for both species. Additionally, freezing (−20 °C) for up to 12 months continued to reduce the detectability of PV in tested processing techniques. We concluded that PVs from both species are susceptible to digestion and processing techniques such as steaming and freezing. Our study obtained preliminary results for further research on the allergenic potential of PV after digestion and processing.
Denise Schrama, Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Marco Cerqueira, Raquel Carrilho, Ana Paula Farinha, Ana M. Rosa da Costa, Amparo Gonçalves, Annette Kuehn, Dominique Revets, Sébastien Planchon,et al.
Elsevier BV
Marco Cerqueira, Sandie Millot, Tomé Silva, Ana S. Félix, Maria Filipa Castanheira, Sonia Rey, Simon MacKenzie, Gonçalo A. Oliveira, Catarina C. V. Oliveira, and Rui F. Oliveira
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Abstract Background In humans the stress response is known to be modulated to a great extent by psychological factors, particularly by the predictability and the perceived control that the subject has of the stressor. This psychological dimension of the stress response has also been demonstrated in animals phylogenetically closer to humans (i.e. mammals). However, its occurrence in fish, which represent a divergent vertebrate evolutionary lineage from that of mammals, has not been established yet, and, if present, would indicate a deep evolutionary origin of these mechanisms across vertebrates. Moreover, the fact that psychological modulation of stress is implemented in mammals by a brain cortical top-down inhibitory control over subcortical stress-responsive structures, and the absence of a brain cortex in fish, has been used as an argument against the possibility of psychological stress in fish, with implications for the assessment of fish sentience and welfare. Here, we have investigated the occurrence of psychological stress in fish by assessing how stressor controllability modulates the stress response in European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Results Fish were exposed to either a controllable or an uncontrollable stressor (i.e. possibility or impossibility to escape a signaled stressor). The effect of loss of control (possibility to escape followed by impossibility to escape) was also assessed. Both behavioral and circulating cortisol data indicates that the perception of control reduces the response to the stressor, when compared to the uncontrollable situation. Losing control had the most detrimental effect. The brain activity of the teleost homologues to the sensory cortex (Dld) and hippocampus (Dlv) parallels the uncontrolled and loss of control stressors, respectively, whereas the activity of the lateral septum (Vv) homologue responds in different ways depending on the gene marker of brain activity used. Conclusions These results suggest the psychological modulation of the stress response to be evolutionary conserved across vertebrates, despite being implemented by different brain circuits in mammals (pre-frontal cortex) and fish (Dld-Dlv).
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Denise Schrama, Chatsirin Nakharuthai, Surintorn Boonanuntanasarn, Dominique Revets, Sébastien Planchon, Annette Kuehn, Marco Cerqueira, Raquel Carrilho, Ana Paula Farinha,et al.
Frontiers Media SA
Hepatic metabolic adjustments are key adaptive mechanisms to stress in fish targeting at increasing energy availability for the animal to efficiently cope with a stressor. Teleosts exhibit a broad variety of these metabolic responses, depending on the species biology, individual experiences and the challenge’s characteristics. Nevertheless, the molecular response to a prolonged stress can be more heterogeneous and far more complex to interpret than that to an acute stress. A comparative proteomics analysis was employed to discover the set of liver proteins involved in the adaptive processes that tune the physiological response ofSparus auratato different suboptimal rearing conditions and physical challenges. Three separated trials were established where fish were submitted to different conditions (overcrowding, net handling and hypoxia). The response at the transcript level of 13 genes was also assessed. Mass spectrometric analysis revealed 71 differential abundant proteins distributed among the trials. Prolonged exposure to stress seems to have induced widespread changes in amino acid, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolisms, antioxidant response and protein folding, sorting and degradation processes. Two genes corresponding to heat-shock proteins were found to be differently expressed in net handled fish. These results shed light on the dynamics and extent of this species’ metabolic reprogramming under different challenges, supporting future studies on stress markers’ discovery and fish welfare research.
Ana Paula Farinha, Denise Schrama, Tomé Silva, Luís E.C. Conceição, Rita Colen, Sofia Engrola, Pedro Rodrigues, and Marco Cerqueira
Elsevier BV
Ana Paula Farinha, Denise Schrama, Tomé Silva, Luís E.C. Conceição, Rita Colen, Sofia Engrola, Pedro Rodrigues, and Marco Cerqueira
Elsevier BV
Ana Paula Farinha, Márcio Moreira, Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Denise Schrama, Marco Cerqueira, Raquel Carrilho, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
Elsevier
Márcio Moreira, Denise Schrama, Ana Paula Farinha, Marco Cerqueira, Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Raquel Carrilho, and Pedro Rodrigues
MDPI AG
One of the main constraints in aquaculture production is farmed fish vulnerability to diseases due to husbandry practices or external factors like pollution, climate changes, or even the alterations in the dynamic of product transactions in this industry. It is though important to better understand and characterize the intervenients in the process of a disease outbreak as these lead to huge economical losses in aquaculture industries. High-throughput technologies like proteomics can be an important characterization tool especially in pathogen identification and the virulence mechanisms related to host-pathogen interactions on disease research and diagnostics that will help to control, prevent, and treat diseases in farmed fish. Proteomics important role is also maximized by its holistic approach to understanding pathogenesis processes and fish responses to external factors like stress or temperature making it one of the most promising tools for fish pathology research.
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Raquel Carrilho, Denise Schrama, Marco Cerqueira, Ana M. Rosa da Costa, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractStress triggers a battery of physiological responses in fish, including the activation of metabolic pathways involved in energy production, which helps the animal to cope with the adverse situation. Prolonged exposure to stressful farming conditions may induce adverse effects at the whole-animal level, impairing welfare. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a rapid biochemical fingerprinting technique, that, combined with chemometrics, was applied to disclose the metabolic alterations in the fish liver as a result of exposure to standard stressful practices in aquaculture. Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) adults exposed to different stressors were used as model species. Spectra were preprocessed before multivariate statistical analysis. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used for pattern recognition and identification of the most discriminatory wavenumbers. Key spectral features were selected and used for classification using the k-nearest neighbour (KNN) algorithm to evaluate whether the spectral changes allowed for the reliable discrimination between experimental groups. PCA loadings suggested that major variations in the hepatic infrared spectra responsible for the discrimination between the experimental groups were due to differences in the intensity of absorption bands associated with proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. This broad-range technique can thus be useful in an exploratory approach before any targeted analysis.
Marco Cerqueira, Denise Schrama, Tomé S. Silva, Rita Colen, Sofia A.D. Engrola, Luis E.C. Conceição, Pedro M.L. Rodrigues, and Ana Paula Farinha
Elsevier BV
Cláudia Raposo de Magalhães, Denise Schrama, Ana Paula Farinha, Dominique Revets, Annette Kuehn, Sébastien Planchon, Pedro Miguel Rodrigues, and Marco Cerqueira
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractBackgroundAquaculture is a fast-growing industry and therefore welfare and environmental impact have become of utmost importance. Preventing stress associated to common aquaculture practices and optimizing the fish stress response by quantification of the stress level, are important steps towards the improvement of welfare standards. Stress is characterized by a cascade of physiological responses that, in-turn, induce further changes at the whole-animal level. These can either increase fitness or impair welfare. Nevertheless, monitorization of this dynamic process has, up until now, relied on indicators that are only a snapshot of the stress level experienced. Promising technological tools, such as proteomics, allow an unbiased approach for the discovery of potential biomarkers for stress monitoring. Within this scope, using Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) as a model, three chronic stress conditions, namely overcrowding, handling and hypoxia, were employed to evaluate the potential of the fish protein-based adaptations as reliable signatures of chronic stress, in contrast with the commonly used hormonal and metabolic indicators.ResultsA broad spectrum of biological variation regarding cortisol and glucose levels was observed, the values of which rose higher in net-handled fish. In this sense, a potential pattern of stressor-specificity was clear, as the level of response varied markedly between a persistent (crowding) and a repetitive stressor (handling). Gel-based proteomics analysis of the plasma proteome also revealed that net-handled fish had the highest number of differential proteins, compared to the other trials. Mass spectrometric analysis, followed by gene ontology enrichment and protein-protein interaction analyses, characterized those as humoral components of the innate immune system and key elements of the response to stimulus.ConclusionsOverall, this study represents the first screening of more reliable signatures of physiological adaptation to chronic stress in fish, allowing the future development of novel biomarker models to monitor fish welfare.
M. Cerqueira, S. Millot, A. Felix, T. Silva, G. A. Oliveira, C. C. V. Oliveira, S. Rey, S. MacKenzie, and R. Oliveira
The Royal Society
The role of cognitive factors in triggering the stress response is well established in humans and mammals (aka cognitive appraisal theory) but very seldom studied in other vertebrate taxa. Predictability is a key factor of the cognitive evaluation of stimuli. In this study, we tested the effects of stressor predictability on behavioral, physiological and neuromolecular responses in the European sea bass ( Dicentrarchus labrax ). Groups of four fish were exposed to a predictable (signalled) or unpredictable (unsignalled) stressor. Stressor predictability elicited a lower behavioural response and reduced cortisol levels. Using the expression of immediate early genes ( c-fos , egr-1 , bdnf and npas4 ) as markers of neuronal activity, we monitored the activity of three sea bass brain regions known to be implicated in stressor appraisal: the dorsomedian telencephalon, Dm (putative homologue of the pallial amygdala); and the dorsal (Dld) and ventral (Dlv) subareas of the dorsolateral telencephalon (putative homologue of the hippocampus). The activity of both the Dm and Dlv significantly responded to stressor predictability, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved role of these two brain regions in information processing related to stressor appraisal. These results indicate that stressor predictability plays a key role in the activation of the stress response in a teleost fish, hence highlighting the role of cognitive processes in fish stress.
Cláudia Sofia Ferreira Raposo de Magalhães, Marco Alexandre Cavaco Cerqueira, Denise Schrama, Márcio Júlio Vicente Moreira, Surintorn Boonanuntanasarn, and Pedro Miguel Leal Rodrigues
Wiley
AbstractThe rapid and intensive growth of aquaculture over the last decade, poses a tremendous challenge to this industry in order to comply with the latest guidelines, established to minimise its negative effects on the environment, animal welfare and public health. Farmed fish welfare has become one of the main priorities towards sustainable aquaculture production with several initiatives launched by the European Union within the framework of the 2030 agenda. It is clear that an unbiased and reliable way to access farmed fish welfare needs to be implemented due to the lack of reliable indicators and standardised methods that are used at present.In this review, we start by addressing the status quo of animal and fish welfare definition in particular, describing the methods and assays currently used to measure it. We then explain why we believe these methods are unreliable and why there is a need to establish new ones that will promote productivity and consumer's acceptance of farmed fish. The establishment of a new type of welfare biomarkers using cutting‐edge technologies like proteomics and other omics technologies is proposed as a solution to this issue. Therefore, we provide a brief description of these new methodologies, describing for each one how they can improve our scientific knowledge and the role they can play in farmed fish welfare biomarker discovery.
Carmen Navarro-Guillén, Marco Cerqueira, Luis E.C. Conceição, Manuel Yúfera, and Sofia Engrola
Elsevier BV
Denise Schrama, Marco Cerqueira, Claúdia S. Raposo, Ana M. Rosa da Costa, Tune Wulff, Amparo Gonçalves, Carolina Camacho, Rita Colen, Flávio Fonseca, and Pedro M. Rodrigues
Frontiers Media SA
The quality of fish flesh depends on the skeletal muscle's energetic state and delaying energy depletion through diets supplementation could contribute to the preservation of muscle's quality traits and modulation of fish allergens. Food allergies represent a serious public health problem worldwide with fish being one of the top eight more allergenic foods. Parvalbumins, have been identified as the main fish allergen. In this study, we attempted to produce a low allergenic farmed fish with improved muscle quality in controlled artificial conditions by supplementing a commercial fish diet with different creatine percentages. The supplementation of fish diets with specific nutrients, aimed at reducing the expression of parvalbumin, can be considered of higher interest and beneficial in terms of food safety and human health. The effects of these supplemented diets on fish growth, physiological stress, fish muscle status, and parvalbumin modulation were investigated. Data from zootechnical parameters were used to evaluate fish growth, food conversion ratios and hepatosomatic index. Physiological stress responses were assessed by measuring cortisol releases and muscle quality analyzed by rigor mortis and pH. Parvalbumin, creatine, and glycogen concentrations in muscle were also determined. Comparative proteomics was used to look into changes in muscle and liver tissues at protein level. Our results suggest that the supplementation of commercial fish diets with creatine does not affect farmed fish productivity parameters, or either muscle quality. Additionally, the effect of higher concentrations of creatine supplementation revealed a minor influence in fish physiological welfare. Differences at the proteome level were detected among fish fed with different diets. Differential muscle proteins expression was identified as tropomyosins, beta enolase, and creatine kinase among others, whether in liver several proteins involved in the immune system, cellular processes, stress, and inflammation response were modulated. Regarding parvalbumin modulation, the tested creatine percentages added to the commercial diet had also no effect in the expression of this protein. The use of proteomics tools showed to be sensitive to infer about changes of the underlying molecular mechanisms regarding fish responses to external stimulus, providing a holistic and unbiased view on fish allergens and muscle quality.
Ole Folkedal, Anders Fernö, Marit A J Nederlof, Jan E Fosseidengen, Marco Cerqueira, Rolf E Olsen, and Jonatan Nilsson
Hindawi Limited
To tailor the farming environment to a fish species, we should understand the species-specific responses to stimuli, including the degree of adaption and learning. Groups of gilthead sea bream were given a delay Pavlovian conditioning regime using a conditioning stimulus (CS) of light flashes signalling arrival of food. Controls were exposed to light flashes unrelated to feeding. Fish in both treatments showed an initial fear response of moving away from the CS combined with reduced swimming speed. In subsequent trials, the Control fish largely habituated the fleeing response but sustained to respond by reducing the swimming speed. The Conditioning fish also stopped to escape from the CS, but opposed to the Control group they gradually increased their swimming speed in response to the CS. In addition, the number of fish in the feeding/CS area increased and became similar to basal level after around 16 trials. A small and variable proportion of the fish displayed black vertical bands on their body and territorial behaviour, and a social hierarchy could interfere with the processes of habituation and conditioning. The swimming speed of the fish increased with number of dark individuals, but this was not found during the CS and the light stimulus thus seemed to overrule the effect of territorial behaviour. The persistent negative response to light flashes in the Control suggests that fish seemingly adapted to repetitive stressors are still in a state of alertness. The change in the response to light shows the potential for rewarding aversive stimuli to reduce stress.
M. Cerqueira, S. Millot, M. F. Castanheira, A. S. Félix, T. Silva, G. A. Oliveira, C. C. Oliveira, C. I. M. Martins, and R. F. Oliveira
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractThe occurrence of emotions in non-human animals has been the focus of debate over the years. Recently, an interest in expanding this debate to non-tetrapod vertebrates and to invertebrates has emerged. Within vertebrates, the study of emotion in teleosts is particularly interesting since they represent a divergent evolutionary radiation from that of tetrapods, and thus they provide an insight into the evolution of the biological mechanisms of emotion. We report that Sea Bream exposed to stimuli that vary according to valence (positive, negative) and salience (predictable, unpredictable) exhibit different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states. Since according to the dimensional theory of emotion valence and salience define a two-dimensional affective space, our data can be interpreted as evidence for the occurrence of distinctive affective states in fish corresponding to each the four quadrants of the core affective space. Moreover, the fact that the same stimuli presented in a predictable vs. unpredictable way elicited different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states, suggests that stimulus appraisal by the individual, rather than an intrinsic characteristic of the stimulus, has triggered the observed responses. Therefore, our data supports the occurrence of emotion-like states in fish that are regulated by the individual’s perception of environmental stimuli.
Maria Filipa Castanheira, Sonia Martínez Páramo, F. Figueiredo, Marco Cerqueira, Sandie Millot, Catarina C. V. Oliveira, Catarina I. M. Martins, and Luís E. C. Conceição
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Marco Cerqueira, Sonia Rey, Tome Silva, Zoe Featherstone, Margaret Crumlish, and Simon MacKenzie
Wiley
Summary Environmental temperature gradients provide habitat structure in which fish orientate and individual thermal choice may reflect an essential integrated response to the environment. The use of subtle thermal gradients likely impacts upon specific physiological and behavioural processes reflected as a suite of traits described by animal personality. In this study, we examine the relationship between thermal choice, animal personality and the impact of infection upon this interaction. We predicted that thermal choice in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus reflects distinct personality traits and that under a challenge individuals exhibit differential thermal distribution. Nile tilapia were screened following two different protocols: 1) a suite of individual behavioural tests to screen for personality and 2) thermal choice in a custom‐built tank with a thermal gradient (TCH tank) ranging from 21 to 33 °C. A first set of fish were screened for behaviour and then thermal preference, and a second set were tested in the opposite fashion: thermal then behaviour. The final thermal distribution of the fish after 48 h was assessed reflecting final thermal preferendum. Additionally, fish were then challenged using a bacterial Streptococcus iniae model infection to assess the behavioural fever response of proactive and reactive fish. Results showed that individuals with preference for higher temperatures were also classified as proactive with behavioural tests and reactive contemporaries chose significantly lower water temperatures. All groups exhibited behavioural fever recovering personality‐specific thermal preferences after 5 days. Our results show that thermal preference can be used as a proxy to assess personality traits in Nile tilapia and it is a central factor to understand the adaptive meaning of animal personality within a population. Importantly, response to infection by expressing behavioural fever overrides personality‐related thermal choice.
Maria Filipa Castanheira, Marco Cerqueira, Sandie Millot, Rui A. Gonçalves, Catarina C.V. Oliveira, Luís E.C. Conceição, and Catarina I.M. Martins
Elsevier BV
Sandie Millot, Marco Cerqueira, Maria-Filipa Castanheira, Øyvind Øverli, Rui F. Oliveira, and Catarina I. M. Martins
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Individual variation in the response to environmental challenges depends partly on innate reaction norms, partly on experience-based cognitive/emotional evaluations that individuals make of the situation. The goal of this study was to investigate whether pre-existing differences in behaviour predict the outcome of such assessment of environmental cues, using a conditioned place preference/avoidance (CPP/CPA) paradigm. A comparative vertebrate model (European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax) was used, and ninety juvenile individuals were initially screened for behavioural reactivity using a net restraining test. Thereafter each individual was tested in a choice tank using net chasing as aversive stimulus or exposure to familiar conspecifics as appetitive stimulus in the preferred or non preferred side respectively (called hereafter stimulation side). Locomotor behaviour (i.e. time spent, distance travelled and swimming speed in each tank side) of each individual was recorded and analysed with video software. The results showed that fish which were previously exposed to appetitive stimulus increased significantly the time spent on the stimulation side, while aversive stimulus led to a strong decrease in time spent on the stimulation side. Moreover, this study showed clearly that proactive fish were characterised by a stronger preference for the social stimulus and when placed in a putative aversive environment showed a lower physiological stress responses than reactive fish. In conclusion, this study showed for the first time in sea bass, that the CPP/CPA paradigm can be used to assess the valence (positive vs. negative) that fish attribute to different stimuli and that individual behavioural traits is predictive of how stimuli are perceived and thus of the magnitude of preference or avoidance behaviour.