Biochemical, Histological, and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal Underlying Differences in Flesh Quality between Wild and Farmed Ricefield Eel ().

The present study aimed to systematically investigate the underlying differences in flesh quality between wild and farmed . Fifteen healthy per group with an average body weight of 45 g were sampled to analyze muscle parameters by biochemical indicators, histomorphology, and molecular biology. Compared with the wild fish, the farmed in flesh had lower crude protein, collagen, lysine, histidine, total amino acids, SFA, n-3 PUFA contents, and n-3/n-6 ratio ( < 0.05), and higher moisture, crude lipid, crude ash, MUFA, n-6PUFA, and total PUFA contents ( < 0.05). The thawing loss, drip loss, steaming loss, and boiling loss in the farmed group were significantly higher, and hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and resilience were significantly lower than those in the wild group ( < 0.05). In addition, higher muscle fiber density and lower muscle fiber diameter were observed in wild ( < 0.05). In muscle transcriptome profiling, differentially expressed genes and enriched pathways are primarily associated with muscle development, protein synthesis, catabolism, lipid metabolism, and immunity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation that compares the flesh quality between wild and farmed in terms of biochemistry, histology, and molecular biology levels. Overall, wild had a higher nutritional value and texture quality than farmed .