High Protein Metabolism Research Articles

Assessment of the impact of feeding technology of black-and-white breed heifers on growth and development indicators during the dairy period.

Proper cultivation of heifers largely determines the optimal manifestation of the genetic productivity of animals. The purpose of this study was to identify the optimal technology for growing black-and-white heifers in the dairy period to realize the genetic potential in the conditions of the northern region of the Republic of Kazakhstan, namely the Kostanay region. To conduct experiments on the farm, two groups of heifers of 10 heads each were formed, immediately after their birth. The selected groups differed in feeding technologies: the control group received the diet adopted on the farm, the feeding technology was changed for the experimental group in order to increase the intensity of heifer growth. The live weight and linear body sizes of heifers were monitored monthly. The new technological scheme of cultivation for the experimental group of heifers included the rejection of dairy feed at the age of two months and the use of ViaCorn 4 starter compound feed, as well as the active use of juicy and coarse feeds, unlike the heifers of the control group who were fed dairy feed until the end of the dairy growing period (up to 6 months). The live weight, average daily gain and linear body sizes of heifers of the experimental group significantly exceeded similar indicators of peers of the control group. The superiority in average daily live weight gains over the heifers of the control group averaged 287.6 g over 6 months. The change in the technological scheme of feeding towards the rejection of dairy feeds at 2 months and the addition of a starter, as well as compliance with the technology of milking colostrum in newborn calves in the experimental group contributed to the better development of the axial and peripheral skeleton, chest organs of animals, which will create prerequisites for the formation of highly productive cows of a pronounced dairy type. The concentration of total protein in the blood of the heifers of the experimental groups at 2 months of age was higher than that of the control group peers by an average of 1.89 g/l and at the age of 6 months - by 3.37 g/l, which indicates a higher protein metabolism in the blood of the heifers of the experimental group.

Major Nutritional Metabolic Alterations Influencing the Reproductive System of Postpartum Dairy Cows.

Early successful conception of postpartum dairy cows is crucial in determining the optimum reproductive efficiency and profitability in modern dairy farming. Due to the inherent high production potential of modern dairy cows, the extra stress burden of peri-parturient events, and associated endocrine and metabolic changes causes negative energy balance (NEBAL) in postpartum cows. The occurrence of NEBAL is associated with excessive fat mobilization in the form of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs). The phenomenon of NEFA mobilization furthers with occurrence of ketosis and fatty liver in postpartum dairy cows. High NEFAs and ketones are negatively associated with health and reproductive processes. An additional burden of hypocalcemia, ruminal acidosis, and high protein metabolism in postpartum cows presents further consequences for health and reproductive performance of postpartum dairy cows. This review intends to comprehend these major nutritional metabolic alterations, their mechanisms of influence on the reproduction process, and relevant mitigation strategies.

Efficiency of using energy supplement "RumiJoy" in the diets of replacement heifers

The paper presents the results of scientific and economic experiment on the use of a new energy supplement in the diets of replacement young cattle in the post-milk period of rearing. The studies were carried out in2019 inthe conditions ofKemerovoregion in the summer and autumn period. Replacement heifers received an energy supplement mixed with concentrates in the amount of 20 ml per head per day. The experimental young animals were fed at a sufficiently high level (10.2–10.3 MJ of metabolizable energy), the amount of basic nutrients corresponded to the need. Feeding the supplement had a positive effect on the growth energy of the animals. It was established that the live weight of heifers in the experimental group reached139.2 kgby the end of the research, which is2.5 kghigher than the control. During the period of the experiment, the gross gain in live weight increased by an average of2.92 kgor 7.5%, the average daily gain exceeded control by48.6 g. When feeding the supplement, positive dynamics in hematological blood parameters was established. The amount of hemoglobin in the experimental group increased by 10.33 g/l, erythrocytes – by 0.21 million/ mm3, which characterizes the intensive course of redox processes in the body. An increase in the total protein and albumin transferases in the blood serum indicates a higher protein metabolism in comparison with the control group of young cattle. An increase in the content of globulins in the experimental group of calves by 27.43% indicates an improvement in the body immuno-defences due to the use of the supplement. The economic effect of using the energy supplement in the diets of heifers averaged 302.0 rubles per head, with a payback of 0.53 rubles.

Hemocytes transcriptomes reveal metabolism changes and detoxification mechanisms in response to ammonia stress in Octopus minor.

Ammonia is one of the major aquatic environmental pollutants that can bring detrimental effects to the growth and survival of aquatic organisms. However, the molecular mechanisms of ammonia toxicity and ammonia excretion in marine invertebrates especially mollusks are still poorly understood. Cephalopods are exclusively ammonotelic with high protein metabolism and ammonia excretion rate, making this taxonomic group an ideal specimen to explore the ammonia detoxification mechanism. In this study, comparative transcriptomes were employed to investigate the transcriptional changes of O. minor in responses to acute ammonia exposure. A total of 63,237 unigenes with an average length of 811 bp were discovered and 25,708 unigenes were successfully annotated. The transcription of 1845 genes were significantly changed after ammonia stress, including 315 up-regulated genes and 1530 down-regulated genes. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis based on differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed that 44 GO terms and 55 KEGG pathways were over-represented. Notably, a large number of genes involved in immune defense, citric acid (TCA) cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and amino acid metabolisms were significantly down-regulated, indicating the decelerated energy production and amino acid rate in response to acute ammonia stress. These results provide new insights into the potential molecular mechanism of ammonia detoxification on transcriptomic level and will facilitate further mechanism studies on mollusks.

Effects of leaf extracts of selected medicinal plants on blood against hypotonic solution by measuring optical density: An in vitro study

The medicinal plant leaf extracts alter the morphology of the cellular components of blood, especially RBCs. However, information on biochemical changes occurring during these events in vitro is lacking. Here, we studied the effect of medicinal plant [Azadirachtaindica A. Juss (Neem), Emblica officinalisGaertn. (Indian Gooseberry or Amla) and Ocimumtenuiflorum L. (Holi basil or Tulsi)] leaf extracts as against the hypotonic solution by measuring the optical density of blood at various wavelengths at 0 and 30 min. the blood, exposed to hypotonic solution, showed cellular degradation and higher protein metabolism; higher glucose metabolism and oxidative cellular damage as well as higher oxygen absorption as compared to test samples. Among the three leaf extracts studied, the Amla extract treatment had comparatively more protective role for cellular components of the blood as against hypotonic solution. However, Tulsi extract significantly reduced hemolysis, heme catabolism and redox stress in RBCs. Tulsi also increased glucose metabolism indicating its antidiabetic property. To conclude, Amla leaf extract significantly reversed the effects of the hypotonic solution on the cellular components while Tulsi extract exhibited therapeutic role in maintaining homeostasis of cellular components in blood

Taxonomic and Functional Compositions of the Small Intestinal Microbiome in Neonatal Calves Provide a Framework for Understanding Early Life Gut Health.

A lack of information on the intestinal microbiome of neonatal calves prevents the use of microbial intervention strategies to improve calf gut health. This study profiled the taxonomic and functional composition of the small intestinal luminal microbiome of neonatal calves using whole-genome sequencing of the metagenome, aiming to understand the dynamics of microbial establishment during early life. Despite highly individualized microbial communities, we identified two distinct taxonomy-based clusters from the collective luminal microbiomes comprising a high level of either Lactobacillus or Bacteroides Among the clustered microbiomes, Lactobacillus-dominant ileal microbiomes had significantly lower abundances of Bacteroides, Prevotella, Roseburia, Ruminococcus, and Veillonella compared to the Bacteroides-dominated ileal microbiomes. In addition, the upregulated ileal genes of the Lactobacillus-dominant calves were related to leukocyte and lymphocyte chemotaxis, the cytokine/chemokine-mediated signaling pathway, and inflammatory responses, while the upregulated ileal genes of the Bacteroides-dominant calves were related to cell adhesion, response to stimulus, cell communication and regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades. The functional profiles of the luminal microbiomes also revealed two distinct clusters consisting of functions related to either high protein metabolism or sulfur metabolism. A lower abundance of Bifidobacterium and a higher abundance of sulfur-reducing bacteria (SRB) were observed in the sulfur metabolism-dominant cluster (0.2% ± 0.1%) compared to the protein metabolism-dominant cluster (12.6% ± 5.7%), suggesting an antagonistic relationship between SRB and Bifidobacterium, which both compete for cysteine. These distinct taxonomic and functional clusters may provide a framework to further analyze interactions between the intestinal microbiome and the immune function and health of neonatal calves.IMPORTANCE Dietary interventions to manipulate neonatal gut microbiota have been proposed to generate long-term impacts on hosts. Currently, our understanding of the early gut microbiome of neonatal calves is limited to 16S rRNA gene amplicon based microbial profiling, which is a barrier to developing dietary interventions to improve calf gut health. The use of a metagenome sequencing-based approach in the present study revealed high individual animal variation in taxonomic and functional abundance of intestinal microbiome and potential impacts of early microbiome on mucosal immune responses during the preweaning period. During this developmental period, age- and diet-related changes in microbial diversity, richness, density, and the abundance of taxa and functions were observed. A correlation-based approach to further explore the individual animal variation revealed potential enterotypes that can be linked to calf gut health, which may pave the way to developing strategies to manipulate the microbiome and improve calf health.

Identification of SNPs potentially related to immune responses and growth performance in Litopenaeus vannamei by RNA-seq analyses.

Litopenaeus vannamei is one of the most important shrimp species for worldwide aquaculture. Despite this, little genomic information is available for this penaeid and other closely related taxonomic crustaceans. Consequently, genes, proteins and their respective polymorphisms are poorly known for these species. In this work, we used the RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq) in L. vannamei shrimp evaluated for growth performance, and exposed to the White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), in order to investigate the presence of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) within genes related to innate immunity and growth, both features of great interest for aquaculture activity. We analyzed individuals with higher and lower growth rates; and infected (unhealthy) and non-infected (healthy), after exposure to WSSV. Approximately 7,000 SNPs were detected in the samples evaluated for growth, being 3,186 and 3,978 exclusive for individuals with higher and lower growth rates, respectively. In the animals exposed to WSSV we found about 16,300 unique SNPs, in which 9,338 were specific to non-infected shrimp, and 7,008 were exclusive to individuals infected with WSSV and symptomatic. In total, we describe 4,312 unigenes containing SNPs. About 60% of these unigenes returned GO blastX hits for Biological Process, Molecular Function and Cellular Component ontologies. We identified 512 KEGG unique KOs distributed among 275 pathways, elucidating the majority of metabolism roles related to high protein metabolism, growth and immunity. These polymorphisms are all located in coding regions, and certainly can be applied in further studies involving phenotype expression of complex traits, such as growth and immunity. Overall, the set of variants raised herein enriches the genomic databases available for shrimp, given that SNPs originated from nextgen are still rare for this relevant crustacean group, despite their huge potential of use in genomic selection approaches.

Effect of feeding a by-product feed-based silage on nutrients intake, apparent digestibility, and nitrogen balance in sheep.

BackgroundLiterature is lacking on the effects of feeding by-product feed (BF)-based silage on rumen fermentation parameters, nutrient digestion and nitrogen (N) retention in sheep. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of replacing rye straw with BF-based silage as a roughage source on ruminal parameters, total-tract apparent nutrient digestibility, and N balance in sheep.MethodsThe by-product feed silage was composed of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) (45 %), recycled poultry bedding (RPB) (21 %), rye straw (11 %), rice bran (10.8 %), corn taffy residue (10 %), protected fat (1.0 %), bentonite (0.6 %), and mixed microbial additive (0.6 %). Six sheep were assigned randomly to either the control (concentrate mix + rye straw) or a treatment diet (concentrate mix + BF-based silage).ResultsCompared with the control diet, feeding a BF-based silage diet resulted in similar ruminal characteristics (pH, acetate, propionate, and butyrate concentrations, and acetate: propionate ratio), higher (p < 0.05) ruminal NH3-N, higher (p < 0.05) ether extract digestibility, similar crude protein digestibility, lower (p < 0.05) dry matter, fiber, and crude ash digestibilities, and higher (p < 0.05) N retention (g/d)ConclusionThe BF-based silage showed similar energy value, higher protein metabolism and utilization, and lower fiber digestion in sheep compared to the control diet containing rye straw.

High macromolecular synthesis with low metabolic cost in Antarctic sea urchin embryos.

Assessing the energy costs of development in extreme environments is important for understanding how organisms can exist at the margins of the biosphere. Macromolecular turnover rates of RNA and protein were measured at -1.5 degrees C during early development of an Antarctic sea urchin. Contrary to expectations of low synthesis with low metabolism at low temperatures, protein and RNA synthesis rates exhibited temperature compensation and were equivalent to rates in temperate sea urchin embryos. High protein metabolism with a low metabolic rate is energetically possible in this Antarctic sea urchin because the energy cost of protein turnover, 0.45 joules per milligram of protein, is 1/25th the values reported for other animals.

Age and androgen-related changes in morphological parameters, haematological indices and serum protein fraction in common vole ( Microtus arvalis Pall.) growing in different photoperiods

1. 1. In male voles raised under different light conditions (L:D = 24:0, L:D =18:6, L:D = 6:18) the following results were obtained. 2. 2. In the young males erythropoesisis seemed to be greatest in voles growing in “winter” photoperiod. In this light condition RBC count showed a tendency to decrease with age while in other illuminations erythrocyte numbers increased. The age related changes in RBC count were very similar to those observed in common voles aging in the different natural seasonal generations. 3. 3. The androgen level was higher after birth and then decreased. After reaching sexual maturity (13–15 weeks of vole life) it showed a peak and then decreased progressively. 4. 4. The age related changes in α 2-globulins (considered to be a potential binding proteins for steroid hormones) and in androgen level suggested a regulating mechanism based on a balance of hormones-blood proteins. 5. 5. The correlations stated between androgens and the parameters studied indicated more steroid than age-related metabolic changes. The more androgens, the less β -globulin and fibrinogen while the greater rate of body and testes weight, as well as of albumin level and of RBC count were observed. All those might affect the transmission of lipoproteins from blood to adipose tissue and less predisposition to fighting with potentially lower blood coagulation capacity and more effective anabolic (erythropoetic) processes in the more “androgenic”, reproductively active male voles. 6. 6. A higher protein metabolism in constant light, i.e. the higher level of the majority of plasma protein fraction and small weight was suggested. 7. 7. The high level of androgens in “winter” photoperiod might condition the aggressiveness and prevent hibernation in natural winter conditions.

Neonatal changes in body composition of infants born to diabetic mothers.

ABSTRACT Total body water in per cent of body weight at birth and at the time of maximum neonatal weight loss (generally 4 or 5 days after birth) is on the average practically unchanged in normal, full-term infants. Infants born to diabetic mothers exhibit a minor, but not significant decrease. This finding does not support the assumption that diab. infants utilize their fat depots to any marked extent to cover their energy requirement during the first few days of life in which they are often starved and that the large water excretion is due to the burning of fat. It agrees, however, with their high protein metabolism (reflected by the high urinary excretion of nitrogen). The reason why fat is not mobilized is discussed, and it is suggested that hyperinsulinism may be present.

STUDIES ON THE DETOXIFICATION OF CYANIDS

In a recent publication, Sullivan and Dawson 1 present data indicating that the sulphocyanate content of the saliva is lower in pellagrins than in normal persons. These authors found that in the active stage of the disease, when the patients are in a more or less cachetic condition, the potassium sulphocyanid (KSCN) formation is low. Sullivan and Dawson suggest that the increased production of potassium sulphocyanid during the convalescent stage of pellagra is due to better assimilation, a higher protein metabolism, and presumably a greater detoxifying power of the system as a whole. They state: Thus the work herein oulined shows that the increased production of sulphocyanate is not closely bound up with total nitrogen but is more probably a product of some endogenous activity perhaps of the synthetic, detoxifying activity of the liver, coupled with a greater assimilation of sulphocyanogetic complexes. It has been shown by Grober 2 that the excretion