The Arctic charr is a salmonid that shows strong seasonal fluctuations in food intake. The charr has a deep resilience in response to periods of fasting indicated by a lack of central hunger signalling. The underpinning physiological mechanism of the strong tolerance to feed deprivation, however, remains enigmatic. The link between microbial communities and control of energy homeostasis is a late-breaking field of research in mammals but has to date received little attention in the field of fish physiology. During this exchange programme, we are going to run pilot experiments, test the feasibility of methods and design experiments that will give answer to the question whether and if, how, the intestinal microbial community of the charr is involved in the regulation of its seasonal feeding behaviour.
The overarching goal of the collaboration between the Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls sur mer (OOB) (Dr. Elodie Magnanou) and the Arctic Chronobiology and Physiology research group (Dr. Anja Striberny) is to develop a cutting-edge project to study appetite regulation and growth in salmonids that will be incorporated in a funding proposal.