Effects of dietary supplementation with betaine on muscle growth, muscle amino acid contents and meat quality in Cherry Valley ducks

Abstract

The effects of dietary betaine supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics, muscle amino acid contents, meat quality, antioxidant capacity, myogenic gene expression and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling pathway in Cherry Valley ducks were evaluated. A total of 720 1‐day‐old Cherry Valley ducks were randomly distributed into four groups with six replicates of 30 birds for a 42‐day feeding trial. Ducks were fed a basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 250, 500 or 1,000 mg/kg betaine, respectively. Growth performance was not affected by betaine. Incremental levels of betaine linearly (p < 0.05) increased the breast muscle yield and linearly (p < 0.05) decreased the subcutaneous fat thickness and the abdominal fat yield. The contents of methionine, serine, glycine, glutamate and total non‐essential amino acid in breast muscle were linearly (p < 0.05) increased by betaine supplementation. With increasing betaine levels, the drip loss and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) were linearly (p < 0.05) decreased, and the redness of meat (linear p < 0.05), the activities of catalase (CAT) (linear p < 0.05) and total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD) (linear p < 0.05, quadratic p < 0.05) were increased. Moreover, the myogenic differentiation factor 1 (MyoD1) mRNA expression and the mTOR mRNA expression and protein phosporylation were linearly (p < 0.05) up‐regulated, and the myostatin (MSTN) mRNA expression was linearly (p < 0.05) down‐regulated by betaine supplementation. Overall, this study indicated that betaine supplementation did not affect the growth performance of Cherry Valley ducks, but could linearly increase some amino acid contents in breast muscle, especially glycine, and increase muscle antioxidant activity to improve meat quality. Moreover, betaine supplementation could improve the breast muscle yield by increasing MyoD1 mRNA expression, decreasing MSTN mRNA expression and regulating mTOR signalling pathway.

Betaine Delayed Muscle Loss by Attenuating Samtor Complex Inhibition for mTORC1 Signaling Via Increasing SAM Level

“…[ 36 ] Previous studies reported betaine could promote muscle growth by activating mTORC1 signaling. [ 13,14 ] For increased protein synthesis was observed after betaine treatment, we inferred that mTORC1 signaling was also affected by betaine treatment. This was then confirmed in WB results where phosphorylation of mTORC1 signaling was higher after betaine treatment in mice of both age groups (Figure 4).…”

“…Betaine is a methyl derivative of glycine and widely applied in livestock feed to increase lean mass as it can upregulate expression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) and promote protein turnover. [ 12–14 ] Supplementation of betaine could increase the muscle mass in young man who persisted in exercise. [ 15 ] Our previous cohort studies in community‐dwelling middle‐aged and older Chinese adults also revealed that betaine was positively associated with lean mass, whereas its relationship with fat mass was inversed.…”

Maternal Methyl-Donor Micronutrient Supplementation During Pregnancy Promotes Skeletal Muscle Differentiation and Maturity in Newborn and Weaning Pigs

“…Pax3 and Pax7 are important regulators of myogenic progenitor cells, which can directly act upstream of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) to further promote muscle differentiation and growth (46,47). MRFs include MyoD1, Myf5, Myog, and MRf4 (48). MyoD1 and Myf5 are involved in muscle determination, while Myog plays a predominant role in muscle cell differentiation to form muscle fibers.…”

Comparative metabolomics analysis reveals the variations of eating quality among three high-quality rice cultivars

“…Betaine is usually used as a food additive or an ideal attractant in fodder because of its unique sweetness and umami. By dietary betaine supplementation, the meat quality of chicken and duck can be significantly elevated (Wen et al 2018;Chen et al 2019). Hence, we speculated that these differential accumulated secondary metabolites may be relevant to rice eating quality.…”