ADDITIONAL DATA ON SPECIES COMPOSITION OF FISH IN TIEN HAI WETLAND NATURE RESERVE, THAI BINH PROVINCE

Mangrove forests are important for many fish species, but this information is still poorly understood in Vietnam. Tien Hai Wetland Nature Reserve is located in the core areas of the Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve, where mangrove forests are presented. To provide fundamental data for a better understanding of the role of mangroves for fishes, three surveys in March, July, and August 2019 at 5 stations within Tien Hai Wetland Nature Reserve were conducted. A total of 817 individuals were collected and 65 species belonging to 54 genera, 28 families of 11 orders were identified. Of the 11 orders, Perciformes was the most diverse in a number of families, and Gobiiformes was dominant in the number of species. Of the 65 species, three were listed in Vietnam Red Data Book (2007), i.e., Bostrychus sinensis as CR level, Clupanodon thrissa as EN level, Konosirus punctatus as VU level, and an invasive alien species (Oreochromis mossambicus). The present study added 15 species to the study site and 10 fish to the lowland of the Red River in comparison with previous works. In the additional list, there were some typical species, which are associated with mangrove forests, such as Escualosa thoracata, Muraenichthuys gymnopterus, and 17 species of gobies. The ichthyofauna in Tien Hai Wetland Nature Reserve was different from Phu Long mangrove forests (in Hai Phong), and significantly different from Van Uc estuary (in Hai Phong) and Bung Binh Thien wetland (in An Giang). These findings will be valuable for fish conservation and fisheries resources development in the study area.

Comprehensive phylogeny of Konosirus punctatus (Clupeiformes: Clupeidae) based on transcriptomic data

Konosirus punctatus is an important species for the structure of marine ecosystems. Meanwhile, it is a native species in the northwest Pacific Ocean and supports important commercial fishery. In this study, we generated the whole transcriptome of K. punctatus from combined tissues (muscle, liver, gill, heart, kidney, swim bladder and sexual gland) using Illumina RNA-seq technology and a total of 46,087,110 clean reads were obtained, corresponding to 6,531,521,430 nucleotides. Meanwhile, 10,000 clean reads were random selected and compared with NT database to examine the possible contamination. Results showed that 6,754 clean reads were distributed among some species closely related with K. punctatus, indicating no-pollution. De novo assembly was performed and all clean reads were assembled to produce 71,610 longest unigenes with an N50 of 906 bp. Among all the unigenes, 43,974 unigenes were annotated in at least one database and 3,172 unigenes were annotated in all databases. All unigenes were further analyzed to predict the gene structure and we have obtained a total of 54,864 coding sequences (CDS) and 17,326 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). Saturation analyses were applied to evaluate the accuracy of gene expression and we hypothesized that the detection of gene expression might be effective. Finally, single-copy orthologous genes were applied to construct the phylogenetic relationship of K. punctatus. Results showed that K. punctatus diverged from the common ancestor with Alosa alosa, A. pseudoharengus and Sardina pilchardus around 61.16-92.52 MYA. The present study will provide a foundational molecular information for the biological research of K. punctatus.

Length–weight relationships of four fish species from Zhoushan, China

The length–weight relationships(LWR) were determined for four fish species (Johnius fasciatus Chu, Lo & Wu, 1963, Gerres japonica Bleeker, 1854, Sillago sihama Forskal, 1775 and Konosirus punctatus Temminck & Schlegel,1846) belonging to four families. Samples of four kinds of fish were collected from Zhoushan of China in four times, once every four months. Bottom trawling was used to catch four kinds of fish. The sampling time was from July 2018 to July 2019. This study provides the LWR parameters for Johnius fasciatus, Gerres japonica, Sillago sihama and Konosirus punctatus. The purpose of this study is to provide reference for the reasonable development and protection of these four fishery resources.

Effect of Seafood (Gizzard Shad) Supplementation on the Chemical Composition and Microbial Dynamics of Radish Kimchi during Fermentation

This study investigated the impact of supplementing radish kimchi with slices of gizzard shad, Konosirus punctatus (boneless - BLGS, or whole - WGS) on the kimchi’s chemical and microbial composition for different fermentation durations. Higher levels of amino nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) were observed in the supplemented kimchi groups compared to those in the control and further, Ca and P levels were highest in the WGS kimchi group. Microbial composition analysis revealed noticeable differences between the three groups at different fermentation durations. The predominant species changed from Leuconostoc rapi to Lactobacillus sakei at the optimal- and over-ripening stages in the control kimchi group. The predominant species in the BLGS kimchi group was L. rapi at all stages of fermentation, whereas the predominant species in the WGS kimchi group was L. rapi at the optimal-ripening stage, and both L. sakei and L. rapi at the over-ripening stage. Significant correlations were observed by analysis of the Spearman’s rank between and within the chemical and microbial composition over fermentation durations. Altogether, gizzard shad supplementation may be used to optimize the desired microbial population to obtain the preferable fresh kimchi flavour by the release of certain inorganic elements and amino N.