| Sumario: | Intensive aquaculture of marine fish species has highly expanded during the last decades and has potential forfurther increase. An increased and consistent supply of high quality aquafeed will be required to sustain thisproduction and to guaranty the production of protein of high biological value for humans. Protein is the mostabundant and expensive dietary nutrient in aquafeeds and fish meal is still the major dietary protein source inmarine aquafeeds. Given the zootechnical, environmental and economical importance of a well-balanced diet,fine-tuning of dietary protein and amino acid composition to closely meet fish requirements are therefore ofutmost importance. This is of particular importance when it is considered the dietary replacement of fish mealby more sustainable and renewable protein sources, such as plant feedstuffs, which have amino acidsunbalances, antinutritional factors, lower protein content and digestibility, and devoid or containing very lowconcentrations of some particular micronutrients, as taurine. Concomitantly, in fish the utilization of aminoacids for energy purpose is considered high, and so optimization of amino acids/protein accretion has greatimportance and practical implications. Besides the nutritional proprieties of amino acids, emerging evidenceshows that some of them have functional properties, regulating key metabolic pathways crucial tomaintenance, growth, and immune responses, being of strong interest in fish production. The importance ofgaining further knowledge regarding amino acid requirements, metabolism and utilization as functionalingredients in aquaculture fish species will be stressed.
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