EFFECTS OF NUTRITIONAL REGIME ON CORRELATES OF GROWTH-RATE IN JUVENILE ATLANTIC COD (GADUS-MORHUA) - COMPARISON OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL MEASUREMENTS

The effects of both long-term (35 d of daily feeding, feeding every se cond day, or starvation) and short-term (up to 15 d of refeeding follo wing starvation) nutritional regimes on morphological (tissue-somatic indices) and biochemical measurements (RNA concentration, RNA/protein ratio, RNA/DNA ratio, and cytochrome c oxidase activity (CCO)) were in vestigated for a variety of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) tissues. Liver -somatic index was the morphological index most sensitive to both the long- and short-term nutritional regimes. The majority of the tissue R NA measurements demonstrated positive linear relationships with growth rate, although stomach, intestine, and white muscle were the most sen sitive tissues for all the treatments. Most of the tissues examined al so showed positive linear relationships with growth rate, although sto mach, intestine, and white muscle were the most sensitive tissues for all the treatments. Most of the tissues examined also showed positive linear relationships between CCO specific activity and long-term growt h rate. However, tissue CCO specific activity was relatively insensiti ve to the short-term alterations in nutritional regime.