Higher intake of β-glucan impairs reproduction in a female teleost, Tor putitora (Hamilton, 1822)

Although the immuno-modulatory and stress-relieving properties of β-glucan is well elucidated in humans and other animal models, including fish, its role as a dietary supplement on reproduction is extremely scarce. Therefore, in this study, adult female fish were fed one of four test diets having 0 (control), 0.5, 1, and 1.5% β- d -glucan for 130 days and its effect on reproductive performance, ovarian and liver histology, sex hormones, and transcript abundance of selected reproduction-related genes was assessed. Low dietary intake of β-glucan improved fertilization and hatching rates ( p 0.05). Higher intake of β-glucan (1.5%) upregulated aromatase genes without a parallel increase in 17β-estradiol. However, plasma vitellogenin increased with increasing β-glucan up to 1.0% then declined at 1.5% ( p