Hepatic transcriptomic and serum bile acids-targeted metabolomic analysis of swamp eel (Monopterus albus) fed high-carbohydrate diet supplemented with Saccharina japonica

High-carbohydrate diet induce liver injury which can reduce harvest yields and generate economic losses in reared fish species. Macroalgae Saccharina japonica (SJ) has been reported to ameliorate the liver injury in mammals, thus, we hypothesized that high-carbohydrate diet supplemented with SJ can improve high-carbohydrate diet-induced liver injury in fish. Firstly, we obtained the transcriptome of the fish by next generation sequencing (NGS) and de novo assbemby. We annotated the unigene of the transcriptome and analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEG) in liver of fish fed the normal diet, high-carbohydrate diet, and high-carbohydrate diet supplemented with 2.5% SJ. Secondly, we identified the bile acids profile of serum bile acids-targeted metabolome by UPLC-MS analysis and analyzed the differential bile acids in fish fed the normal diet, high carbohydrate diet, and high carbohydrate diet supplemented with 2.5% SJ. Hepatic transcriptomic and serum bile acids-targeted metabolomic analysis revealed that several important DEG, bile acids and KEGG pathway were identified to be potentially involved in ameliorating liver injury of fish.