Digestive and metabolic profile of the resident population of the silverside Odontesthes argentinensis from Mar Chiquita Coastal Lagoon (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

The knowledge about the occurrence and biochemical characteristics of key digestive enzymes is crucial for an enhanced understanding of the dietary ecophysiology of the species. On the other hand, integrative studies on digestive physiology and on tissue content of glycogen, glucose, lipid and protein in groups of ecological and economic importance are currently limited. In this work, we determined the occurrence and biochemical characteristics in intestine of key digestive enzymes activities as indexes of the ability to digest different dietary substrates and of functional differentiation for digestion/absorption of nutrients along with the intestinal coefficient as index of dietary habit and digestion efficiency in adults of Odonthtestes argentinensis inhabiting Mar Chiquita Coastal Lagoon (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Furthermore, to identify storage sites, glycogen, triglycerides and protein content in different tissues were also analyzed. The presence and biochemical characteristics of amylase, maltase, sucrase, lipase, trypsin and aminopeptidase-N activity in intestine, as well as the tissue content of glycogen, triglycerides and protein suggests that adults of O.argentinensis exhibit an adequate digestive battery to potentially perform complete hydrolysis of various dietary substrates and capacity for storage and/or utilization of energy reserves. Our study provides novel insights into the digestive/metabolic traits in adults of the resident silverside O. argentinensis from Mar Chiquita Coastal Lagoon.