Abstract
The in vitro fermentation of two Non-Digestible Oligosaccharide (NDO) preparations, Arabinoxylan- Oligosaccharides (AXOS) and Oligofructose (OF), and their respective monomeric sugars, xylose and fructose, were investigated by hindgut microbiota of two major aquaculture fish species, Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) and African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). Inocula from the hindgut of both fish species were incubated for 48 h in bottles containing 1.0% of one of four substrates, i.e. AXOS, OF, xylose or fructose. Amounts and profiles of produced Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs) differed between the two fish species and substrates. The hindgut microbiota of Siberian sturgeon has a higher fermentation capacity than the microbiota from African catfish. Xylose was much easier fermented than AXOS by microbiota from Siberian sturgeon whereas OF was quicker fermented than fructose with African catfish inoculum. The SCFAs were dominated by acetic acid for both fish species and for all substrates. Fermentation of OF and fructose by hindgut microbiota of Siberian sturgeon also yielded high amounts of butyric and branched-chain fatty acids after 48 h incubation. Results of this study suggest that AXOS, OF, and their monomeric sugars have an impact on microbial fermentation activity of hindgut microbiota from Siberian sturgeon and African catfish in a substrate and species dependent manner.
Highlights
There is currently increasing interest to understand better the composition of gut bacterial community, and their role in animal nutrition, physiology and immunology
We aimed to investigate the degrading capacity of Arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS) and xylose, compared with one of the most known prebiotics, Oligofructose and its constituent monomer fructose, by the microbiota from hindgut of two major aquaculture fish species, African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), either preadapted or not to dietary AXOS or OF
This results are in agreement with our earlier studies where we demonstrated a higher production of ShortChain Fatty Acids (SCFAs) in fish fed AXOS with an average degree of polymerization (avDP) of 32 versus short avDP of 3 [36]
Summary
There is currently increasing interest to understand better the composition of gut bacterial community, and their role in animal nutrition, physiology and immunology. Many research efforts have focused on the modulation of the colonic microbiota and their fermentation processes, using Non-digestible Oligosaccharides (NDOs) as prebiotic agents, with the aim of improving host health [11,12,13]. It has been well proven that NDOs that target the colon, affect the internal environment and bacterial community composition, and enhance the concentration of SCFA such as acetate, propionate and butyrate. Their industrial applications have rapidly increased in the last few years, both in prebiotic formulations and in symbiotic products (containing probiotic organisms and prebiotic oligosaccharides). According to Roberfroid [14] and Van Loo [15], only a few dietary NDOs, namely fructan inulin and oligofructose (OF, enzymatic hydrolysate of inulin) and trans-galactooligosaccharide, classify as prebiotics for humans, livestock and companion animals
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