The heart’s energy secret: Impact of a DHA deficiency on cardiac mitochondrial efficiency and thermal performance in sardine (Sardina pilchardus)

This dataset compiles biometric, lipidomic, and mitochondrial respiration data from European sardines (Sardina pilchardus) exposed to a controlled dietary experiment manipulating DHA availability. Five data files are provided: (1) individual biometric measurements collected at the beginning and end of the experiment; (2) total and membrane fatty acid compositions, expressed both in concentrations and relative percentages, including derived lipid indices; (3) the subset of 44 fatty acids used for PCA on membrane composition; (4) raw mitochondrial respiration and ATP production measurements obtained from cardiac tissue across four temperatures and two dietary treatments; and (5) averaged mitochondrial fluxes with latency corrections and derived bioenergetic variables such as ATP/O and oxidative coupling efficiency (OxCE).
Respiration measurements were performed with high-resolution Oroboros respirometry in duplicate, and lipid analyses were conducted on the Lipidocean platform. The dataset includes methodological details on Rox correction, failed measures, duplicate handling, and latency adjustments, ensuring full transparency for reuse.
These data were generated to investigate how dietary DHA deficiency affects bioenergetic performance, mitochondrial efficiency, and thermal sensitivity in sardines. The dataset supports the associated scientific publication and can be reused for comparative physiology, bioenergetics modelling, lipidomics, and studies of thermal performance under environmental change.