Muscle growth and development in normal-sex-ratio and all-female diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon

Muscle development and growth were investigated in diploid populations of normal-sex-ratio and all-female Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) and their triploid counterparts produced by high-pressure treatment. Somites were formed at the rate of 6 h-1 in both diploids and triploids at 6 degrees C. The rostral-to-caudal development of myotubes, myofibrils and acetylcholinesterase staining at the myosepta was slightly more advanced in triploid than in diploid fish, although the differences were smaller than among individual families. The c-met receptor tyrosine kinase was used as a molecular marker for the satellite cells involved in postembryonic muscle growth. Satellite cell nuclei comprised 17.5 % of total myonuclei in smolts and they were 24 % more abundant in diploid than in triploid fish. Cells expressing the myogenic regulatory factor myf-6, a marker of satellite cells committed to differentiation, represented 14.8 % of total myonuclei in diploids and 12.5 % in triploids. At ambient temperatures, the number of white muscle fibres in normal-sex-ratio fish increased more than 30-fold between the alevin and smolt stages, and approximately 3.5-fold further during the first year of seawater growth. The rate of muscle fibre recruitment in seawater stages was significantly greater in diploid than in triploid fish, reaching 1162 fibres day-1 and 608 fibres day-1, respectively, in all-female groups 800 days post-hatching. For 42 cm fork-length fish, there were approximately one-third more muscle fibres per myotome in diploid than in triploid groups, 649 878 and 413 619, respectively, for all-female fish. The probability density function of muscle fibre diameters in each fish was estimated using non-parametric smoothing techniques, and the mean densities for diploids (fD) and triploids (fT) were calculated. The peak fibre diameter was approximately 20 (micro)m in all age classes, irrespective of ploidy. Distinct bimodal distributions of muscle fibre diameter were evident in all groups 775 days and 839 days post-hatching, reflecting seasonal cycles of fibre recruitment. fD and fT were compared using a non-parametric bootstrap technique and the reference band representing the null-hypothesis indicated that there was no difference with ploidy. Reference bands for normal-sex-ratio fish at 315 days and 470 days indicated that diploids had a higher percentage of smaller-diameter fibres and that triploid distributions had a thicker right-hand tail. Similar differences in fD and fT of muscle fibre diameters were found for all-female fish, although the statistical evidence was less strong. Reference bands indicated differences in the middle range of the distributions of muscle fibre diameter in fish 620–775 days post-hatch, with triploids having a thicker right-hand tail. Thus, a lower density of satellite cells was associated with reduced rates of fibre recruitment but a compensatory increase in muscle fibre hypertrophy in triploid compared with diploid fish.