FUNCTIONAL MODIFICATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH STOMACH ORGANOGENESIS DURING METAMORPHOSIS IN ATLANTIC HALIBUT Hippoglossus hippoglossus

摘要

Adult fish with a stomach has a highly efficient digestion of proteins mainly due to an initial acid digestion phase, enzymatic and mechanical breakdown of ingested feeds. Altricial fish species, such as Atlantic halibut, do not possess a stomach at the onset of first feeding and the development of this organ starts several days after the onset of exogenous feeding. When completely formed and functional the stomach play an important role during digestion acting as a short term reservoir enabling a meal based feeding regime and a controlled and optimized supply of substrates for further degradation in the intestine.