Table Of ContentPatrick Williot · Guy Nonnotte
Denise Vizziano-Cantonnet
Mikhail Chebanov E ditors
The Siberian
Sturgeon (Acipenser
baerii, Brandt, 1869)
Volume 1 - Biology
The Siberian Sturgeon (Acipenser baerii,
Brandt, 1869) Volume 1 - Biology
Patrick Williot • Guy Nonnotte
Denise Vizziano-Cantonnet
Mikhail Chebanov
Editors
The Siberian Sturgeon
(Acipenser baerii, Brandt,
1869) Volume 1 - Biology
Editors
Patrick Williot Guy Nonnotte
Audenge La Teste de Buch
France France
Denise Vizziano-Cantonnet Mikhail Chebanov
Facultad de Ciencias Kuban State University
Universidad de la República Oriental Krasnodar, Krasnodar Territory
del Uruguay Russia
Montevideo
Uruguay
ISBN 978-3-319-61662-9 ISBN 978-3-319-61664-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61664-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959368
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Foreword
This book on the Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) presented by my friend
Patrick Williot is both a body of scientific data for almost 40 years on this species
and its breeding and exemplary history of the development of a new species in aqua-
culture. But how has this “saga” started and how has Patrick Williot been able to
devote his entire life of being a scientist to this species?
The story was born in the region that remained the last sanctuary of the European
sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), Aquitaine, and its rivers and estuaries. In the 1970s, it
seemed that this species was doomed to disappear if no protective measures were
taken. This then led the CEMAGREF (old Irstea) team, of which at this time I had
the responsibility, to launch with the support of national and regional authorities, as
well as professionals, a research program on the biology of this species. This pro-
gram would probably not have achieved its current development if a fortuitous event
had occurred. In 1975, I was called by the deputy director of the Aquaculture
Department of CNEXO (ancestor of IFREMER) Pierre Rouzaud, who asked me if
we were interested in hosting 300 young Siberian sturgeon (300 g each) that
CNEXO was to receive from its Soviet counterpart, VNIRO, in exchange for sea
bass fry from the Palavas station. My response was immediate and positive, while
we had no program for this operation!
We did have some advantages: an experimental breeding facility with warm
waters from a thermal power station in Ambés, a young and motivated team in aqua-
culture, and an early knowledge of this family of fish through the work on local
species. The reception of these early fingerlings was made at the Roissy Airport
(where I rode in a van), with an immediate transfer with a transport container to our
station. Then it was the start of a first work program on the diet of this species, for
which we had no data. Collective work between CEMAGREF, INRA, and the sub-
sidiary factory of Grands Moulins de Paris specializing in fish feed allowed to move
quickly on this issue and even publish the first scientific paper on the subject 1
But everything remained to be known and learned to get the technical mastery of
all the operations necessary to develop the breeding of this species. Indeed, until
then, only the Soviet team had been working on it, but only on the reproduction and
1 Barrucand M., Ferlin P., Lamarque P., Sabaut J.J., 1979. Alimentation artificielle de l’esturgeon
Acipenser baeri. Proc. World Symposium on Finfish Nutrition and Fish feed Technology,
Hambourg, 20-23 juin 1978, Vol. 1, 411-421.
v
vi Foreword
larval rearing, aiming on restocking of fresh and estuarine waters. Jointly conducted
missions by CEMAGREF (P. Ferlin) and INRA (P. Lamarque) in the 1970s in USSR
and Iran showed that the larval rearing system (crucial phase for aquaculture) was
absolutely not adapted to Western conditions. To feed the larvae and fingerlings of
sturgeon, they first had to make a mashed cabbage (sort of “borsch”) and then give
it as food to small red worms (chironomids), which were recovered by hand in trays
with light above (that they do not like!) and heating below (which attracts and con-
centrates them). On the other hand, in countries rich in native populations, obtaining
eggs was done by sacrificing the females, while with our small population imported,
we had to eventually reuse for other female pundits, developing a cesarean tech-
nique2. Many other and fundamental aspects for breeding also remained to be stud-
ied in terms of reproductive physiology, nutrition, diseases, etc.
This work started through an agreement between CEMAGREF and INRA, at the
Donzacq station of INRA, but it was very soon necessary to create new facilities,
such as the hatchery in Saint Seurin sur L'Isle, strengthen scientific laboratories, and
train researchers and technicians, but above all find a leader to initiate and manage
these actions. It is Patrick Williot who volunteered to take the lead in this ambitious
research program that would be subject to his life of being a scientist.
His work had three consequences:
• An amount of scientific and technical knowledge on this species, subject of
this book
• The development of a new aquaculture industry in France and abroad, creating
jobs and producing high-quality products
• The ability to protect wild sturgeons, especially in Aquitaine, not only by con-
trolling their capture but also by developing methods of breeding and larval rear-
ing issued from the work of the team of Patrick
So I would like, as a prelude to this book, to pay tribute to the tenacious and
efficient work of Patrick Williot and thank him for having contributed to the devel-
opment of this sector and to the protection of these species that are so emblematic,
the sturgeons. I also hope that this book will induce new vocations and develop new
research in this area that has always fascinated me.
Philippe Ferlin
Former Chairman of OECD Committe of Fisheries
General Inspector of Agriculture and Fisheries (Hon.)
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
2 The editor in chief of this two volumes (P. Williot) has been primarily trained in the former USSR
in the 1970s. A publication (Charlon et Williot 1978) provided, among others, the different ways
of rearing the live preys for sturgeon larvae (oligochete, dapnia, artemia) as well as basic surgery.
In the early 1980s, ceasarian has been industrialized simultaneously in France and USA. Later on,
obtaining of ovulated eggs without ceasarian has been developed in Russia (Podushka 1986, see
also Chap. 27 in this issue).
Contents
Part I Biology and Ecology
1 Geographical Distribution, Ecological and Biological
Characteristics of the Siberian Sturgeon Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Georgii Igorevich Ruban
2 What Makes the Difference Between the Siberian Sturgeon
and the Ponto-C aspian Sturgeon Species? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Georgii Igorevich Ruban
3 Anatomic Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Mikhail Chebanov and Elena Galich
4 The Axial Skeleton of the Siberian Sturgeon. Development,
Organization, Structure and New Insights on Mineralization
and Ossification of Vertebral Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Jean-Yves Sire and Amandine Leprévost
5 Evolution of Molecular Investigations on Sturgeon Sex
Determination and Most Recent Developments in DNA
Methylation with a Focus on the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Rémy Simide and Sandrine Gaillard
6 Sex Determination and Differentiation of the Siberian Sturgeon . . . 93
Denise Vizziano-Cantonnet, Santiago Di Landro, and André Lasalle
7 Analysis of Transposable Elements Expressed in the Gonads
of the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Frédéric Brunet, Alexia Roche, Domitille Chalopin, Magali Naville,
Christophe Klopp, Denise Vizziano- Cantonnet,
and Jean-Nicolas Volff
8 Early Ontogeny in the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Enric Gisbert and Yoon Kwon Nam
9 Behaviour of Early Life Stages in the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . 159
Enric Gisbert and Mikhail Solovyev
vii
viii Contents
10 Olfaction and Gustation in Acipenseridae, with Special References
to the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Alexander Kasumyan
11 Nutritional Requirements of the Siberian Sturgeon:
An Updated Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Bahram Falahatkar
12 Swimming Characteristics of the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Ming Duan, Yi Qu, and Ping Zhuang
Part II Biology and Physiology of Reproduction
13 Chemical Neuroanatomy of the Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal
System in Sturgeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Olivier Kah and Fátima Adrio
14 An Updated Version of Histological and Ultrastructural Studies
of Oogenesis in the Siberian Sturgeon Acipenser baerii . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Françoise Le Menn, Catherine Benneteau-Pelissero,
and René Le Menn
15 Sperm and Spermatozoa Characteristics in
the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Martin Pšenička and Andrzej Ciereszko
16 Gonadal Steroids: Synthesis, Plasmatic Levels
and Biological Activities in Sturgeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Denise Vizziano-Cantonnet
17 Steroid Profiles Throughout the Hormonal Stimulation
in Females Siberian Sturgeon Acipenser baerii Brandt . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Patrick Williot, Sylvain Comte, Françoise Le Menn,
and Blandine Davail-Cuisset
Part III Ecophysiology: Adaptation to Environment
18 Respiratory and Circulatory Responses to Hypoxia in the
Sturgeon, Acipenser baerii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Guy Nonnotte, Patrick Williot, and Valérie Maxime
19 Effects of Exposure to Ammonia in Water: Determination
of the Sublethal and Lethal Levels in Siberian Sturgeon,
Acipenser baerii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Guy Nonnotte, Dominique Salin, and Patrick Williot
Contents ix
20 Consequences of High Levels of Ammonia Exposure
on the Gills Epithelium and on the Haematological
Characteristics of the Blood of the Siberian Sturgeon,
Acipenser baerii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Guy Nonnotte, Dominique Salin, Patrick Williot,
Karine Pichavant- Rafini, Michel Rafini, and Liliane Nonnotte
21 Acid-Base Balance and Ammonia Loading in the Siberian
Sturgeon Acipenser baerii, Exposed to High Concentrations
of Ammonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Guy Nonnotte, Dominique Salin, Patrick Williot,
Karine Pichavant- Rafini, Michel Rafini, and Liliane Nonnotte
22 Effects of Exposure to Ammonia on Plasma, Brain
and Muscle Concentrations of Amino Acids and Adenyl
Nucleotides in the Siberian Sturgeon, Acipenser baerii . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Guy Nonnotte, Dominique Salin, Patrick Williot,
Karine Pichavant- Rafini, Michel Rafini, and Liliane Nonnotte
23 The Importance of Water Quality in Siberian Sturgeon Farming:
Nitrite Toxicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Enric Gisbert
Part IV Specific Methods
24 Cannulation in the Cultured Siberian Sturgeon, Acipenser baerii
Brandt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Patrick Williot and Françoise Le Menn
25 Some Basic Methods in Respiratory Physiology Studies Applied
in the Siberian Sturgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Guy Nonnotte, Patrick Williot, Karine Pichavant-Rafini,
Michel Rafini, and Liliane Nonnotte
Conclusions of the Volume 1: Recent Progress in Biology of Acipenser
baerii, an Exciting Subject for Further Academic Research
and Development of Aquaculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
About the Editors
Denise Vizziano Cantonnet Denise Vizziano Cantonnet is a professor of the
Facultad de Ciencias at the Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay
(UdelaR) and at the postgraduate program Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias
Básicas (PEDECIBA). She is researcher of the Government System of National
Researcher (ANII) and head of the Department of Animal Biology (UdelaR). She is
doctor of the University of Rennes I (U-Rennes I, France) and made a postdoctoral
stay at the INRA of Rennes (France). She worked as invited professor at U-Rennes
I. She conducted original research on reproductive endocrinology of fish working in
different species of commercial importance as trouts, silverside, and croakers and
developed for 20 years a training course on reproductive physiology of fish for
Latino American students promoting the development of this new area of research
in Latin America. She was invited as professor at different universities of Latin
America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru) interested to develop endocri-
nology of reproduction of native species key for fish farming. She started to work in
Siberian sturgeons when the producers contacted the university to reproduce the
species in Uruguay. The first reproduction in captivity of the Southern Hemisphere
has been done in Uruguay together with Dr. Patrick Williot by applying the method-
ology developed by this researcher in the CEMAGREF (France). She started the
first worldwide investigations in the molecular basis of sex differentiation in stur-
geons and built a complete gonadal transcriptome of Siberian sturgeons in order to
search the master gene for sex determination and genes involved in sex differentia-
tion. In cooperation with specialists on fish evolution (Dr. Jean Nicolas Volff and Dr.
Frederic Brunet, University of Lyon), a first study on retrotransposons has been
made using the gonadal transcriptome. A multi-tissue transcriptome is recently built
for Siberian sturgeons in cooperation with Ing. Christophe Klopp (INRA, Toulouse),
and the team of Dr. Vizziano is now searching for a genetic sex marker that will
improve the fundamental research and will have an impact in sturgeon production.
Mikhail Chebanov Professor Mikhail Chebanov, Dr.Sc., is professor of the
Department of Aquatic Bioresources and Aquaculture of Kuban State University
and director of the State Regional Centre for Sturgeon Gene Pool Conservation
“Kubanbioresursi,” Ministry of Natural Resources (Krasnodar, Russia). He has
developed a technology of the all-year-round reproduction of the different sturgeon
xi
