During these last 20 years, many studies have focussed on the development of the digestive tract in marine fish larvae. Most of the studies aimed at acquiring knowledge on the optimal form of dietary supply for different nutrients, in order to formulate a compound diet able to totally replace live preys in the fish larvae feeding sequence. Consequently, most of the studies aimed at describing the effect of dietary adaptation on digestive enzymes profile, the morphology of the main organs, while others aspects of the physiology of the larvae digestive tract (gut hormones, intestinal transport...) were poorly investigated. This review reports the more recent data on dietary modulation of digestive enzymes with a particular emphasis, when possible, on the molecular and hormonal mechanisms controlling enzyme expression in larvae. We examined how the dietary modulation of pancreatic and intestinal enzymes involved in protein digestion can provide useful information concerning the nature and molecular form of a dietary protein supply that would be adequate for larval stages. In the same way, data on lipase and phospholipase A2 paralleled with recent findings on lipid transport, strongly suggests that fish larvae handle phospholipids better than triglycerides. A new field of research has been opened in fish larvae nutrition, with the study of the effects of some nutrients on the functioning of some metabolic pathways involved in development and their impact on larvae physiology and morphogenesis, as well as the further development of juveniles. These studies revealed cross-talks between some metabolic processes, particularly those concerning vitamin A and polyunsaturated fatty acids, during fish larvae development and unveil the necessity to design a global approach for determining the requirements of some nutrients. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.