Oral administration of Lactobacillus plantarum Lq80 and Megasphaera elsdenii iNP‐001 induces efficient recovery from mucosal atrophy in the small and the large intestines of weaning piglets

Weaning causes atrophy of intestinal mucosa and a drop of IgA protection in piglets which increases vulnerability to pathogenic infections. Probiotic lactobacilli may support recovery from such weaning stresses. Butyrate‐produce bacteria may support the growth of colonic mucosa. Megasphaera elsdenii, a lactate‐utilizing butyrate producer, may help butyrate production particularly when combined with lactobacilli. Weaned piglets (Experiment 1: 20 days old, Experiment 2: 28 days old) were orally dosed once a day with either (L) 10¹⁰ (cell/dose) L. plantarum Lq80, or (LM) 10¹⁰ (cell/dose) Lq80 with 10⁹ (cell/dose) M. elsdenii iNP‐001. Lq80 was contained in capsules resistant to gastric digestion. M. elsdenii was contained in capsules resistant to gastric and intestinal digestion. An untreated control (C) was also prepared. After 2 weeks of administration, L. plantarum enhanced the recovery from the villous atrophy in both experiments. The rectal and colonic IgA tended to be higher in L and LM than in C in Experiment 1. Colonic butyrate was higher in LM than in the others in Experiment 1. The thickness of the colonic mucosa was greater in LM than in the others in Experiment 1. In early weaned piglets, the effects of L. plantarum and M. elsdenii were clear.     

A mating system to reduce inbreeding in selection programmes: Theoretical basis and modification of compensatory mating

Increased rate of inbreeding in selection programmes may have an important effect on mid- and long-term selection response and reproductive performance through reduction in genetic variance and inbreeding depression. Selection on an inherited trait inflates the rate of inbreeding and reduces the effective population size (R obertson 1961; S antiago and C aballero 1995). This can be particularly important in selection based on index with information from relatives (L ush 1947) or best liner unbiased prediction (BLUP) with an animal model (H enderson 1984). In recent years, various methods have been proposed to reduce the rates of inbreeding in selection programmes while keeping genetic gains at the same level. These methods assume various selection and mating strategies. G rundy et al. (1994) showed that the use of biased heritability estimates for BLUP evaluation is one of the simplest and most efficient methods. A direct reduction in the weight on family mean in index selection (T oro and P erez -E nciso 1990), selection for weighted ancestral Mendelian sampling estimates (W oolliams and T hompson 1994; G rundy et al. 1998) and limited use of selected parents (T oro and N ieto 1984; W ei 1995) have also been shown to be efficient methods. Other methods include nonrandom matings of selected parents, such as factorial mating designs (W oolliams 1989), minimum coancestry mating (T oro et al. 1988) and compensatory mating (S antiago and C aballero 1995). Simultaneous optimization of the selection of candidates and their mating allocations has been also considered through mate selection with linear programming techniques (T oro and P erez -E nciso 1990). Among these methods, compensatory mating is a very simple and efficient method (G rundy et al. 1994; S antiago and C aballero 1995; C aballero et al. 1996). This mating system was derived from the theoretical consideration on effective population size under selection (S antiago and C aballero 1995). Although S antiago and C aballero (1995) considered that implementation of this mating could counteract the cumulative effect of selection on the effective population size, the theoretical basis has been little studied. In this paper, the author gives the theoretical basis of compensatory mating. A modification to enhance the effect of compensatory mating is also proposed and the efficiency is examined by stochastic simulation.     

Purification and characterization of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase from the aerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aeropyrum pernix</Emphasis>

The aerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon Aeropyrum pernix expresses carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation activity under heterotrophic growth conditions. Using activity stain gel analysis, CO oxidation activity was detected in a protein with a molecular mass of 210 kDa. The 210 kDa CODH protein was purified to homogeneity from A. pernix. Aeropyrum Mo-CODH catalyzed the oxidation of CO with a specific activity of 2.1 μmol CO min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ at 95°C, pH 8.0 using methyl viologen as the electron acceptor. The CODH protein showed high oxygen and thermo stability. The protein contains three subunits: L (86.6 kDa), M (34.5 kDa), and S (12.6 kDa), which form the LM₂S complex. The molecular mass of the complex was calculated by gel filtration and found to be 163.7 kDa. N-terminal amino acid sequencing and peptide mass fingerprinting analysis of the subunits indicated that they corresponded to NP_148462.1, NP_148464.2, and NP_148465.1, and their genes annotated the molybdo iron-sulfur flavoprotein carbon monoxide dehydrogenase S, L, and M subunits, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that CODH belongs to a novel clade of diverse CODHs.     

Prebiotic effect of glycerol galactoside isolated from color-faded nori in rats

Glycerol galactoside (GG; floridoside: 2-O-glycerol-α-d-galactopyranoside, and isofloridoside: 1-O-glycerol-α-d-galactopyranoside) is known to be a component of edible red seaweed nori. Recently, we have found that low-quality nori (color-faded nori), which has a low protein content, contains a large quantity of GG. From further studies, we have also found that GG has prebiotic characteristics in vitro. In this study, we evaluated the in vivo prebiotic activity of GG in rats. Dietary GG selectively increased the cecal Bifidobacterium count in rats. Other indices of prebiotics, such as pH of cecal content, organic acid concentrations, and fecal weight, also supported the existence of prebiotic activity of GG. The present data will also contribute to the development of a new method of utilizing color-faded nori as a health-promoting foodstuff.