Organic rare earth feed additive to enhance Penaeus monodon’s muscle quality: A comprehensive insights into texture, amino acid, and fatty acid composition

This study investigated the effects of dietary organic rare earth feed additive (OREFA) on the muscle quality of Penaeus monodon (initial weight 2.09 ± 0.01 g). Shrimp in each group were fed with basal diets supplemented with 0(CON), 0.1(OREFA1), 0.2(OREFA2), and 0.3 g/kg (OREFA3) of OREFA for 56d, separately. The results revealed that the OREFA2 group showed significantly higher final body weight, weight gain and specific growth rate compared to the CON group, while exhibiting a significantly lower feed conversion rate ( P < 0.05). Additionally, the OREFA1, OREFA2 and OREFA3 groups demonstrated significantly improved adhesiveness, chewiness and elasticity compared to the CON group of muscle ( P < 0.05). Furthermore, compared to the CON group, the OREFA2 group exhibited a significantly increase in the content of umami amino acids (glycine), monounsaturated fatty acids (C18:1, C18:1(n-9), C20:1, C22:1, C24:1) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (C18:2, C18:3, C20:2, C20:4, C20:3, C20:5, C22:4, C22:6) ( P < 0.05). Additionally, the relative expression levels of muscle growth-related genes PI3K (Phosphoinositide 3-kinase), TOR (target of rapamycin), AKT (Protein kinase B), S6K1 (ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1) and 4E-BP1 (4E-binding protein 1) were significantly higher in shrimp muscle compared to the CON group ( P < 0.05). These results indicate that OREFA not only enhanced growth performance, but also improved muscle quality in P. monodon by optimizing amino acid and fatty acid composition, and promoting the expression of muscle growth-related genes. This study provided effective evidence for the application of OREFA supplementation in producing healthy, high-quality and nutritionally enhanced P. monodon . • OREFA effectively enhanced the growth performance of P. monodon . • OREFA improved the muscle texture characteristics, amino acid and fatty acid compositions in muscle. • OREFA increased the expression of muscle growth-related genes in P. monodon.