Lasting temperature effects on the muscle tissue, body growth and fillet texture of adult turbots, Scophthalmus maximus, L.

In the teleosts, several factors can influence the muscle growth patterns of fish by a modulation of the hypertrophy and hyperplasia. The temperature (T) is one of the most important environmental factors. Thus, the T history of fish influences on their potential growth, as it has been observed in Salmon, Salmo salar (Johnston et al., 2003) and other species. The T imprinting can influence on the muscle cellularity throughout the advanced stages of life due to the lasting T effects on myogenic cells precursors (MPC) (Steinbacher et al., 2011). In different teleost species, a correlation between texture and muscle fibre size has been demonstrated (Hatae et al., 1990). Hence, the thermal history can also influence in the flesh texture. In the present work we study the lasting T effects in adult turbots reared at different Ts during the early phases. This species reaches ≈ 1.5 kg at 18-20 months of age and the first sexual maturity takes place at ≈ 24 month