Composition of amino acids in feed ingredients for animal diets

Abstract

Dietary amino acids (AA) are crucial for animal growth, development, reproduction, lactation, and health. However, there is a scarcity of information regarding complete composition of "nutritionally nonessential AA" (NEAA; those AA which can be synthesized by animals) in diets. To provide a much-needed database, we quantified NEAA (including glutamate, glutamine, aspartate, and asparagine) in feed ingredients for comparison with "nutritionally essential AA" (EAA; those AA whose carbon skeletons cannot be formed by animals). Except for gelatin and feather meal, animal and plant ingredients contained high percentages of glutamate plus glutamine, branched-chain AA, and aspartate plus asparagine, which were 10-32, 15-25, and 8-14% of total protein, respectively. In particular, leucine and glutamine were most abundant in blood meal and casein (13% of total protein), respectively. Notably, gelatin, feather meal, fish meal, meat and bone meal, and poultry byproduct had high percentages of glycine, proline plus hydroxyproline, and arginine, which were 10-35, 9.6-35, and 7.2-7.9% of total protein, respectively. Among plant products, arginine was most abundant in peanut meal and cottonseed meal (14-16% of total protein), whereas corn and sorghum had low percentages of cysteine, lysine, methionine, and tryptophan (0.9-3% of total protein). Overall, feed ingredients of animal origin (except for gelatin) are excellent sources of NEAA and EAA for livestock, avian, and aquatic species, whereas gelatin provides highest amounts of arginine, glycine, and proline plus hydroxyproline. Because casein, corn, soybean, peanut, fish, and gelatin are consumed by children and adults, our findings also have important implications for human nutrition.

Functional amino acids in nutrition and health

“…Of particular interest, AA participate in and modulate cell signaling through: (1) several well-conserved protein kinases (including mammalian target of rapamycin, AMP-activated protein kinase, cGMP-dependent kinase, cAMP-dependent kinase, and mitogen-activated protein kinase), (2) G protein-coupled receptors, and (3) gaseous molecules, including NO, CO, and H 2 S (Wu 2013). In addition, glutamate, glutamine, and aspartate [abundant AA in food proteins of plant and animal origin (Li et al 2011a)] are major metabolic fuels for mammalian enterocytes (Burrin and Stoll 2009;Rezaei et al 2013a, b). Emerging evidence shows a crucial role for glutamate in chemical sensing in the gastrointestinal tract (San Gabriel and Uneyama 2012) and possibly in other tissues (Gallinetti et al 2013).…”

Visualization of amino acid composition differences between processed protein from different animal species by self-organizing feature maps

“…The largest difference of all amino acids was for Gly (-3.4%), followed by Lys (-2.1%) and Pro (-2.0%). Inadequacy of amino acids, especially essential amino acids, will directly affect animal growth, development, reproduction and health [13] , while oversupply of amino acids will not only increase feeding cost but also increase nitrogen excretion leading to environmental pollution [26] . Considering the existing differences, much attention should be paid to balancing amino acid compositions of MBM when used to replace FM in animal diets.…”

“…The protein concentration in PAPs is usually over 50%. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and they are vital for animal growth, development, reproduction and health [13,14] . Investigations of amino acid composition differences between PAPs from different animal species have, however, been limited.…”

Antioxidant activity of silkworm powder treated with protease

“…Amino acid content in the freeze-dried extract samples was determined based on previously reported methods (Li et al, 2011). The amino acids were determined in triplicate using the Amino Acid Analyzer (L-8900, HITACHI, Japan), and results were presented milligram of amino acids per 1 milligram of freeze-dried extract samples (mg/mg).…”