The French Institute for Marine Research and Exploitation of the Sea is an independent research institution with a staff of 1400 people, involved in oceanic research.

The Department of Physiology of Marine Organisms (Brest) will contribute to the project, together with the Laboratory of Aquaculture Nutrition and Metabolism from St-Pée-sur-Nivelle (INRA), both being associated in the Joint Research Unit for Fish Nutrition, Aquaculture and Genomics (NuAGe, UMR 1067). They gather around 20 researchers, 7 PhD students and post-docs involved in fish. The principal objective is to conduct research on fish nutrition, metabolism and feeding in a coordinated manner so as to gain basic knowledge on nutrition and metabolism in both freshwater and marine fish.

The research unit has fish larval and juvenile rearing facilities, and also several fully equipped laboratories for studies in nutrition, microbiology, and physiology, cellular and molecular biology, including spectrophotometers for enzymatic studies, and molecular biology, gas liquid chromatography, HPLC, PCR apparatus, real time PCR for gene expression, TTGE apparatus (including fluorescence imaging scanner). Brest facilities at Ifremer, Brest has been elected as a European Research Infrastructure in 2001.

The team has been involved in several European research projects, among which AQUAMAX (sustainable aquafeeds), CONSENSUS (seafood benefits for consumer), FEUFAR (the future of European fishery and Aquaculture Research), FINEFISH (skeletal development of fish larvae), PEPPA (Plant Protein use in Aquaculture), RAFOA (Fish oil replacement) and SELFDOTT (tuna breeding).

The partner will undertake the rearing and microbiological tasks on seabass in WP1 and in WP3. For these nutritional studies, the team will also assay the markers of digestion and carbohydrate metabolism, while providing some insight into the immune function by comparing the levels of expression of candidate genes. They will also contribute to WP2 by formulating compound diets for gnotobiotic trials. The team will contribute also to the integrative and management tasks.

The collective expertise of the group on fish nutrition, microbiology, enzymology  and molecular biology will guarantee the capability to complete the task commitment. They have pioneered studies on the impact of bacteria associated with fish larval rearing, while developing compound feeds for first-feeding seabass larvae, and sustainable alternative protein sources for fish on-growing, contributing thus to the removal major bottlenecks in these areas.

	Dr F. J. Gatesoupe	has a large experience on gastro-intestinal microbiota in fish, in connection with the nutritional requirements of the host.
	Dr S. J. Kaushik	is recognized as one of the leading world expert in fish nutrition, and he has a great experience of project management.
	Dr D. Mazurais	has a strong expertise in fish physiology, molecular nutrition and transcriptomic approaches.
	Dr S. Panserat	has a strong expertise in fish physiology, molecular nutrition and transcriptomic approaches.
	Dr J. Zambonino	has a strong expertise in fish physiology, molecular nutrition and transcriptomic approaches.

They all together will supervise the experimental studies and molecular analyses performed on European seabass larvae and juveniles, reared under xenic conditions.

• Geurden, I., Aramendi, M., Zambonino Infante, J. and Panserat S. (2007). Early feeding of carnivorous rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with a hyperglucidic diet during a short period : effect on dietary glucose utilisation in juveniles. Am. J. Physiol., 292: R2275-R2283.
• Glencross, B. D., Boujard, T. and Kaushik, S. J., (2003). Influence of oligosaccharides on the digestibility of lupin meals when fed to rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. Aquaculture, 219: 703-713.
• Kotzamanis, Y., Gisbert, E., Gatesoupe, F. J., Zambonino Infante, J. and Cahu, C. (2007). Effects of different dietary levels of fish protein hydrolysates on growth, digestive enzymes, gut microbiota, and resistance to Vibrio anguillarum in European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) larvae. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 147A: 205–214.
• Mahious, A. S., Gatesoupe, F. J., Hervi, M., Métailler, R. and Ollevier, F. (2006). Effect of dietary inulin and oligosaccharides as prebiotics for turbot, Psetta maxima (Linnaeus 1758). Aquaculture International, 14: 219-229.
• Waché, Y., Auffray, F., Gatesoupe, F.J., Zambonino, J., Gayet, V., Labbé, L. and Quentel, C. (2006). Cross effects of the strain of dietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae and rearing conditions on the onset of intestinal microbiota and digestive enzymes in rainbow trout, Onchorhynchus mykiss, fry. Aquaculture, 258: 470–478.