Marine cage culture leads to higher IMP content and ADSL gene expression in the muscle of Japanese sea bass (Lateolabrax japonicus) compared with freshwater pond culture

Why seawater‐reared Japanese sea bass (Lateolabrax japonicus) tastes better than that reared in freshwater has not been well determined. Given that flavour nucleotides have great impact on meat flavour, we compared the contents of AMP, GMP and IMP in the back muscle of Japanese sea bass cultured in marine cage and freshwater pond. The results showed that IMP was the main kind of flavour nucleotide and that the content of IMP in the back muscle of fish reared in seawater was significantly higher than that of fish reared in freshwater (p