WATER TEMPERATURE ON GROWTH AND LIPID METABOLISM IN CHINESE MANDARIN FISH

In order to analyze the differences in growth and metabolism of <italic>Siniperca chuatsi</italic> under different culture temperatures, the present experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of growth, liver fat metabolism, and oxidative stress in male and female <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> at different temperatures (28℃, 35℃, and 36℃). The results showed that female <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> grew faster than that of male at 28℃; at 35℃, the growth of both male and female <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> was significantly higher than that of 28℃, with males growing faster than females, indicating a sex-dependent growth shift under high temperature; the growth was seriously inhibited at 36℃, identifying this as the critical temperature for normal survival. Hepatic lipid droplet number and triglyceride (TG) content in both male and female showed an overall trend of first increasing and then decreasing with temperature, while male <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> upregulated hepatic genes related to insulin, gluconeogenesis at 35℃. the SOD activities of male and female <italic>Siniperca chuatsi</italic> were reversed, with female SOD decreased, whereas male SOD increased significantly; <italic>hsp70</italic>, <italic>hsp90</italic>, <italic>ucp2</italic>, <italic>sod</italic> and <italic>cat</italic> genes in the liver of female <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> upregulated at 35℃, while male livers showed consistent expression with females except for significantly elevated <italic>sod</italic>. The present study demonstrates that the growth of <italic>S. chuatsi</italic> correlates positively with the fat utilization, and the metabolic rate growth of male was significantly higher than that of female under high temperature; the long-term high-temperature culture induces sex-reversed growth patterns, highlighting the potential of all-male populations under high-temperature culture conditions.