• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1195-1204
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• 2022

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the in vitro fermentation profiles of different soybean oligosaccharides (SBOs) and their effects on skatole production and cecal microbiota of broilers. Methods: Five SBOs with varying main component contents were fermented using an in vitro batch incubation inoculated with broiler cecal microbiota. Gas production was recorded automatically, skatole, indole and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography, and microbial changes were analyzed using 16S DNA gene sequencing. Results: The addition of SBOs increased (p<0.05) gas production, suggesting bacterial growth-stimulating activities. In addition, the concentrations of indole were significantly (p<0.05) decreased after SBO supplementation, and SBO III, with higher sucrose and stachyose contents, decreased (p<0.05) the skatole level. Our results also revealed that the fermentation of SBOs by cecal microbiota produced (p<0.05) SCFAs, which were dominated by propionic acid, butyrate acid and lactic acid compared to the control. In addition, SBO III increased (p<0.05) the abundance of Firmicutes and Subdoligranulum and decreased that of Bacteroides. Conclusion: These results suggest that SBOs with higher sucrose and stachyose contents are promising prebiotics in modulating gut microbiota and reducing odor emission in broilers.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.404-409
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• 2023

This study investigates the relationship between cancer cachexia and the gut microbiota, focusing on the influence of cancer on microbial composition. Lewis lung cancer cell allografts were used to induce cachexia in mice, and body and muscle weight changes were monitored. Fecal samples were collected for targeted metabolomic analysis for short chain fatty acids and microbiome analysis. The cachexia group exhibited lower alpha diversity and distinct beta diversity in gut microbiota, compared to the control group. Differential abundance analysis revealed higher Bifidobacterium and Romboutsia, but lower Streptococcus abundance in the cachexia group. Additionally, lower proportions of acetate and butyrate were observed in the cachexia group. The study observed that the impact of cancer cachexia on gut microbiota and their generated metabolites was significant, indicating a host-to-gut microbiota axis.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.425-437
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• 2024

Exercise plays an important role in regulating energy homeostasis, which affects the diversity of the intestinal microbial community in humans and animals. To the best of the authors' knowledge, few studies have reported the associations between horse gut microbiota along with their predicted metabolic activities and the athletic ability of Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds living in Korea. This study was conducted to investigate the association between the gut microbiota and athletic performance in horses. This study sequenced the V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of the partial 16S rRNA genes obtained from racehorse fecal samples and compared the fecal microbiota between high- and low-performance Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds. Forty-nine fecal samples were divided into four groups: high-performance Jeju horses (HJ, n = 13), low-performance Jeju horses (LJ, n = 17), high-performance Thoroughbreds (HT, n = 9), and low-performance Thoroughbreds (LT, n = 10). The high-performance horse groups had a higher diversity of the bacterial community than the low-performance horse groups. Two common functional metabolic activities of the hindgut microbiota (i.e., tryptophan and succinate syntheses) were observed between the low-performance horse groups, indicating dysbiosis of gut microbiota and fatigue from exercise. On the other hand, high-performance horse groups showed enriched production of polyamines, butyrate, and vitamin K. The racing performance may be associated with the composition of the intestinal microbiota of Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2005

Four male crossbred beef steers about 2 years old were used in a 4$\{times}$4 Latin square design to investigate the effect of pelleted sugarcane tops on voluntary feed intake, rumen fermentation and digestibility of nutrients. Experimental treatments were; Control (dried-chopped sugarcane tops (DCST)); PS1 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 1 cm of diameter); PS2 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 2 cm of diameter) and PS3 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 3 cm of diameter). Roughage intake and total dry matter intake were 1.59, 1.62, 1.61, 1.63% BW and 2.09, 2.12, 2.11 and 2.13% BW in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3 treatments, respectively (p<0.05). Digestibility of DM, OM and CP were similar in control and PS3 treatment but there was significant difference (p<0.05) between control and PS1, PS2 treatments. Digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were 52.89, 50.01, 50.05 and 50.56% and 41.91, 39.96, 39.91 and 39.69% in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3, respectively (p<0.05). Total volatile fatty acids concentrations in rumen contents was 67.68, 65.93, 66.15 and 66.67 mM in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3, respectively (p<0.05). Even though, concentrations of acetate and butyrate (%) were significant different (p<0.05) but concentration of propionate (%) was not affected by treatments (p>0.05). Rumen pH, ammonia nitrogen and plasma urea nitrogen were significantly different (p<0.05) among treatments. From this experiment, it was found that dried-chopped sugarcane tops increased digestibility of nutrients whereas pelleted sugarcane tops increased feed intake in beef cattle. However, pelleted sugarcane tops at 3 cm of diameter did similar result in digestibility and rumen parameters with DCST. Therefore, it could be concluded that pelleting sugarcane top is an alternative way to improve the quality of sugarcane tops for use as ruminant roughage source.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.221-225
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• 2005

An in vitro study was conducted to examine the effect of monensin or fish oil addition on bio-hydrogenation of $C_{18^-} unsaturated fatty acids and CLA production by mixed ruminal bacteria when incubated with safflower oil. Commercially manufactured concentrate (1%, w/v) with safflower oil (0.2%, w/v) were added to mixed solution (600 ml) of strained rumen fluid and McDougalls artificial saliva (control). Monensin $Rumensin^{(R)}$, 10 ppm, w/v, MO), mixed fish oil (0.02%, w/v, absorbed to 0.2 g alfalfa hay, FO) or similar amounts of monensin and fish oil (MO+FO) to MO and FO was also added into the control solution. All the culture solutions prepared were incubated in the culture jar anaerobically at $39^{\circ}C$ up to 12 h. Higher pH (p<0.047) and ammonia concentration (p<0.042) were observed from the culture solution containing MO at 12 h incubation than those from the culture solutions of control or FO. The MO supplementation increased (p<0.0001-0.007) propionate proportion of culture solution but reduced butyrate proportion at 6 h (p<0.018) and 12 h (p<0.001) of incubations. Supplementation of MO or MO+FO increased (p<0.001) the proportions of $C_{18:2}$. The MO alone reduced (p<0.022-0.025) the proportion of c9,t11-CLA compared to FO in all incubation times. The FO supplementation increased the proportion of c9,t11-CLA. An additive effect of MO to FO in the production of c9,t11-CLA was observed at 6 h incubation. In vitro supplementation of monensin reduced hydrogenation of $C_{18^-}$UFAs while fish oil supplementation increased the production of CLA.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1088-1097
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• 2014

The study aimed to investigate the effects of gynosaponin on in vitro methanogenesis under different forage-concentrate ratios (F:C ratios). Experiment was conducted with two kinds of F:C ratios (F:C = 7:3 and F:C = 3:7) and gynosaponin addition (0 mg and 16 mg) in a $2{\times}2$ double factorial design. In the presence of gynosaponin, methane production and acetate concentration were significantly decreased, whereas concentration of propionate tended to be increased resulting in a significant reduction (p<0.05) of acetate:propionate ratio (A:P ratio), in high-forage substrate. Gynosaponin treatment increased (p<0.05) the butyrate concentration in both F:C ratios. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis showed there was no apparent shift in the composition of total bacteria, protozoa and methanogens after treated by gynosaponin under both F:C ratios. The real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis indicated that variable F:C ratios significantly affected the abundances of Fibrobacter succinogenes, Rumninococcus flavefaciens, total fungi and counts of protozoa (p<0.05), but did not affect the mcrA gene copies of methanogens and abundance of total bacteria. Counts of protozoa and abundance of F.succinogenes were decreased significantly (p<0.05), whereas mcrA gene copies of methanogens were decreased slightly (p<0.10) in high-forage substrate after treated by gynosaponin. However, gynosaponin treatment under high-concentrate level did not affect the methanogenesis, fermentation characteristics and tested microbes. Accordingly, overall results suggested that gynosaponin supplementation reduced the in vitro methanogenesis and improved rumen fermentation under highforage condition by changing the abundances of related rumen microbes.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.379-387
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• 2013

Embryonic stem (ES) cells can self-renew and differentiate to various cells depending on the culture condition. Although ES cells are a good model for cell type specification and can be useful for application in clinics in the future, studies on ES cells have many experimental restraints including low transfection efficiency and transgene expression. Here, we observed that transgene expression after transfection was enhanced by treatment with histone deacetylse (HDAC) inhibitors such as trichostatin A, sodium butyrate, and valproic acid. Transfection was performed using conventional transfection reagents with a retroviral vector encoding GFP under the control of CMV promoter as a reporter. Treatment of ES cells with HDAC inhibitors after transfection increased population of GFP positive cells up to 180% compared with untreated control. ES cells showed normal expression of stem cell markers after treatment with HDAC inhibitors. Transgene expression was further enhanced by modifying transfection procedure. GFP positive cells selected after transfection were proved to have the stem cell properties. Our improved protocol for enhanced gene delivery and expression in mouse ES cells without hampering ES cell properties will be useful for study and application of ES cells.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.269-279
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• 1990

A 98 d feeding trial carried out to study liveweight change and rumen metabolites in heifers weighing initially 275 kg and given either untreated or ammoniated rice straw supplemented with 0, 0.4, 0.8 or 1.2 kg protein meal consisting of cottonseed meal (60). All 32 animals received 0.6 kg rice polishings/hd/d and had continuous access to molasses/urea block-licks containing 15% urea. The effects on growth rates of treatment of the straw with ammonia and of supplementation with bypass protein were additive. The heifers fed ammoniated straw grew 267 g/hd/d (p<0.001) faster and consumed 11% (p<0.05) more straw than the heifers on untreated straw. The mean growth response to bypass protein was 0.37 kg gain/kg protein meal supplied. Supplementation with protein meal tended (p=0.06) to depress intake of straw, but straw intakes of the unsupplemented groups were high. Small changes in the composition of the block-licks that were fed throughout the feeding trial led to changes in block intake and in intake of untreated straw. Increasing quantities of protein meal fed were associated with linear increase in concentrations of ammonia (p<0.05) and in molar percentages of iso-butyrate (p<0.01), iso-valerate (p<0.01) and valerate (p<0.01) in the rumen fluid of the heifers on a basal diet of untreated straw. However, in the rumen fluid of the heifers given ammoniated straw, the levels of these metabolities were not affected by the quantity of protein meal given.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1433-1441
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• 2015

This study examined changes of rumen fermentation, ruminal bacteria biodiversity and abundance caused by nitrate addition with Ion Torrent sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction. Three rumen-fistulated steers were fed diets supplemented with 0%, 1%, and 2% nitrate (dry matter %) in succession. Nitrate supplementation linearly increased total volatile fatty acids and acetate concentration obviously (p = 0.02; p = 0.02; p<0.01), butyrate and isovalerate concentration numerically (p = 0.07). The alpha (p>0.05) and beta biodiversityof ruminal bacteria were not affected by nitrate. Nitrate increased typical efficient cellulolytic bacteria species (Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Ruminococcus ablus, and Fibrobacter succinogenes) (p<0.01; p = 0.06; p = 0.02). Ruminobactr, Sphaerochaeta, CF231, and BF311 genus were increased by 1% nitrate. Campylobacter fetus, Selenomonas ruminantium, and Mannheimia succiniciproducens were core nitrate reducing bacteria in steers and their abundance increased linearly along with nitrate addition level (p<0.01; p = 0.02; p = 0.04). Potential nitrate reducers in the rumen, Campylobacter genus and Cyanobacteria phyla were significantly increased by nitrate (p<0.01; p = 0.01).To the best of our knowledge, this was the first detailed view of changes in ruminal microbiota by nitrate. This finding would provide useful information on nitrate utilization and nitrate reducer exploration in the rumen.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2009

An in vitro incubation study was conducted to investigate effects of 2-bromoethanesulfonic acid (BES) on ruminal fermentation characteristics and methanogen population. BES at the final concentration of 0, 1 and 5 mM with two different substrates having a different ratio of timothy and concentrate (100% timothy vs. 40% timothy-60% concentrate) was incubated for 0, 24, 48 and 72 h in a $39^{\circ}C$ incubator. Total DNA extracted from culture fluid was used as a template for real-time PCR to measure the population of methanogens. Four different primer sets were used for amplification of total bacteria, total methanogens, the order Methanobacteriales and the order Methanomicrobiales. BES reduced (p<0.01) total gas and methane production in a dose-dependent manner. BES at 5 mM inhibited methane production by more than 95% compared to the control. An interaction between substrate and level of BES in total gas and methane was detected (p<0.01). The decrease of methane production with increasing BES level was more pronounced on mixed substrate than on timothy alone. However, hydrogen production was increased by BES treatment (p<0.01). Total VFA concentration was not affected, but molar percentage of propionate and butyrate was increased and acetate to propionate ratio was reduced by BES treatment (p<0.01). BES did not affect the population density of total bacteria but reduced (p<0.01) the population of total methanogens, the order Methanobacteriales and the order Methanomicrobiales in a dose-dependent manner. The type of substrate did not influence the trend, although the magnitude of response was different between all-roughage and 40% roughage substrate.