We studied the effects of L-carnitine on growth performance, carcass composition, and lipid metabolism in male broilers. Six hundred male commercial broilers were allotted to five groups, each of which included three replicates (40 birds per replicate). The groups received the same basal diet supplemented with 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100 mg/kg L-carnitine, respectively. The feeding trial showed that L-carnitine had no significant effect on daily gain or feed conversion. Supplementation with L-carnitine (above 25 mg/kg) in the diet increased breast muscle yield (P < 0.05) and crude fat content of the muscles and decreased abdominal fat content (P < 0.05). Addition of 50, 75, or 100 mg/kg L-carnitine to the diet decreased total activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, and lipoprotein lipase (P < 0.05) in the subcutaneous fat and total activity of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I (P < 0.05) in breast muscles. The results of this study indicate that L-carnitine could reduce the deposit of subcutaneous fat by decreasing total activities of enzymes in the fat and enhance intramuscular fat by decreasing the activity of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I in breast muscles.

The laurel family within the Magnoliids has attracted attentions owing to its scents, variable inflorescences, and controversial phylogenetic position. Here, we present a chromosomelevel assembly of the Litsea cubeba genome, together with low-coverage genomic and transcriptomic data for many other Lauraceae. Phylogenomic analyses show phylogenetic discordance at the position of Magnoliids, suggesting incomplete lineage sorting during the divergence of monocots, eudicots, and Magnoliids. An ancient whole-genome duplication (WGD) event occurred just before the divergence of Laurales and Magnoliales; subsequently, independent WGDs occurred almost simultaneously in the three Lauralean lineages. The phylogenetic relationships within Lauraceae correspond to the divergence of inflorescences, as evidenced by the phylogeny of FUWA, a conserved gene involved in determining panicle architecture in Lauraceae. Monoterpene synthases responsible for production of specific volatile compounds in Lauraceae are functionally verified. Our work sheds light on the evolution of the Lauraceae, the genetic basis for floral evolution and specific scents.

The study was conducted to investigate the promoted immune response to ovalbumin in mice by chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) and its toxicity. CNP did not cause any mortality or side effects when mice were administered subcutaneously twice with a dose of 1.5 mg at 7-day intervals. Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice were immunized subcutaneously with 25 μg ovalbumin (OVA) alone or with 25 μg OVA dissolved in saline containing Quil A (10 μg), chitosan (CS) (50 μg) or CNP (12.5, 50 or 200 μg) on days 1 and 15. Two weeks after the secondary immunization, serum OVA-specific antibody titers, splenocyte proliferation, natural killer (NK) cell activity, and production and mRNA expression of cytokines from splenocytes were measured. The serum OVA-specific IgG, IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b antibody titers and Con A-, LPS-, and OVA-induced splenocyte proliferation were significantly enhanced by CNP (P < 0.05) as compared with OVA and CS groups. CNP also significantly promoted the production of Th1 (IL-2 and IFN-γ) and Th2 (IL-10) cytokines and up-regulated the mRNA expression of IL-2, IFN-γ and IL-10 cytokines in splenocytes from the immunized mice compared with OVA and CS groups. Besides, CNP remarkably increased the killing activities of NK cells activity (P < 0.05). The results suggested that CNP had a strong potential to increase both cellular and humoral immune responses and elicited a balanced Th1/Th2 response, and that CNP may be a safe and efficacious adjuvant candidate suitable for a wide spectrum of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.

No abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of chromium nanoparticle (CrNano) on growth, carcass characteristics, pork quality, and tissue chromium in finishing pigs. A total of 100 Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire barrows (average initial BW of 64.78±0.83 kg) were divided into 10 pens, 10 pigs per pen. 5 pens of pigs were fed with control diet (corn-soybean meal, 1.05% Lys) and others were fed with control diet addition with 200 µg/kg Chrome (Cr) from CrNano. During the trial, all pigs were given free access to feed and water. After 35 days trial, 10 pigs from each each treatment (weight similar to average group weight, 91.34±1.31 kg for control group, and 92.26±0.56 kg for CrNano treated group) were sacrificed to measure carcass characteristics, pork quality, and to collect the samples of longissimus muscle, liver, kidney and heart. The results indicated that the addition of 200 µg/kg CrNano decreased feed: gain ratio by 3.56% (p<0.05) compared to the control group. Pigs fed CrNano had 14.06% higher (p<0.05) carcass lean percentage, 19.96% (p<0.05) larger longissimus muscle area and 25.53% lower (p<0.05) carcass fat percentage, 18.22% lower (p<0.05) backfat thickness. Drip loss in chops from pigs fed CrNano was decreased by 21.48% (p<0.05) and weights of longissimus muscle and semimembranosus were increased by 16.33% (p<0.05) and 14.87% (p<0.05) respectively. In addition, supplemental CrNano resulted in 184.11% (p<0.05), 144.99% (p<0.05), 88.13% (p<0.05) and 52.60% (p<0.05) increment of Cr concentration in longissimus muscle, liver, kidney and heart, respectively. These results suggest that supplemental CrNano has beneficial effects on carcass characteristics, pork quality and individual skeletal muscle weight, increase tissue chromium concentration in selected muscle and organs. (Asian-Aust.

In biological systems, the task of computing a gait trajectory is shared between the biomechanical and nervous systems. We take the perspective that both of these seemingly different computations are examples of physical computation. Here we describe the progress that has been made toward building a minimal biped system that illustrates this idea. We embed a significant portion of the computation in physical devices, such as capacitors and transistors, to underline the potential power of emphasizing the understanding of physical computation. We describe results in the exploitation of physical computation by (1) using a passive knee to assist in dynamics computation, (2) using an oscillator to drive a monoped mechanism based on the passive knee, (3) using sensory entrainment to coordinate the mechanics with the neural oscillator, (4) coupling two such systems together mechanically at the hip and computationally via the resulting two oscillators to create a biped mechanism, and (5) demonstrating the resulting gait generation in the biped mechanism.

An in vitro study was conducted to examine the effects of fructooligosaccharide (FOS) at levels of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% on conversion of L-tryptophan to skatole and indole by a mixed bacterial population from the large intestines of pigs. Microbial suspensions were anaerobically incubated at 38°C for 24 h. Samples were periodically removed for determination of pH and indole compounds. After 24 h incubation, microbial populations in each culture media were analyzed. Addition of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% FOS to the slurries with L-tryptophan significantly decreased the skatole concentration, the peak value of indole-3-acetic acid and the medium pH. The viable counts of Bifidobacterium were significantly higher as compared with the control. Addition of 1.0 and 1.5% FOS significantly decreased the rate of tryptophan degradation and the relative rate of skatole production. The relative rate of indole production was significantly increased. The viable counts of Clostridium and Escherichia coli were significantly reduced. The total viable counts of anaerobes were significantly increased. These results suggest that the reduced concentration of skatole observed in the presence of FOS may be caused by the decreased tryptophan degradation due to the increased need for amino acids in the synthesis of bacterial cellular protein, and by shifting microbial metabolism of tryptophan toward indole production at the expense of skatole, which might result from the changed microbial ecosystem and pH. Our observations open the possibility of inhibiting microbial production of skatole and decreasing the skatole concentration in backfat by feeding pigs diets containing FOS, but it remains to be demonstrated in vivo.

No abstract