Dietary supplementation with cellooligosaccharide improves growth performance in weanling pigs

Nondigestible oligosaccharides are not digested in the small intestine, but are fermented by bacteria colonizing in the large intestine. Physiological effects of non‐digestible oligosaccharides have been considered to be conferred by the fermentation of bacteria colonizing in the large intestine. Because cellooligosaccharide is a non‐digestible oligosaccharide, various physiological effects are expected. However, physiological functions of cellooligosaccharide are not well understood. This experiment was conducted to clarify the effect of dietary supplementation with cellooligosaccharide on the growth performance in weanling pigs. The result showed that average daily gain was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in pigs fed a diet supplemented with cellooligosaccharide than in pigs without cellooligosaccharide. There was a tendency to increasing average daily feed intake in pigs with cellooligosaccharide, though the significant difference was not detected (P = 0.18). Feed efficiency and nutrient digestibility of feces and ileum were not changed by feeding cellooligosaccharide. In addition, blood urea nitrogen was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in pigs fed the diet supplemented with cellooligosaccharide than in pigs without cellooligosaccharide. The concentrations of acetic and iso‐valeric acids in the cecum of pigs fed the diet with cellooligosaccharide tended to be higher (P < 0.10) than those without cellooligosaccharide. The results obtained in this study demonstrated that dietary supplementation with cellooligosaccharide improves growth performance in weanling pigs.     

Increased activity and reduced sensitivity of glutamine synthetase in glufosinate‐resistant vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides Nash) cells

Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides Nash) cells derived from an inflorescence were cultured in a modified N6 liquid medium supplemented with 10 µm 2,4‐D and 10 mm proline. Exponentially growing cell suspensions were subcultured with a selection medium containing glufosinate (ammonium dl ‐homoalanin‐4‐yl(methyl)phosphinate). The glufosinate‐resistant cells which can grow in a medium containing 5 × 10^?5 M glufosinate was selected by a stepwise selection, and its I₅₀ value was determined to be 4.2 × 10^?5 M. The growth of susceptible cells was inhibited by lower concentrations of glufosinate and its I₅₀ value was 2.5 × 10^?7 M. This indicated that the selected cells were 170‐fold resistant compared with the susceptible cells. Glutamine synthetase (GS) activity of the resistant cells was twice as high as that of the susceptible cells. The I₅₀ values of glufosinate were 3.2 × 10^?5 M and 9.0 × 10^?7 M for GS from the resistant and susceptible cells, respectively. The accumulation of ammonia caused by GS inhibition was higher in the susceptible cells. Absorption of [3,4–¹⁴C]glufosinate was not significantly different between the resistant and susceptible cells. Both cell types did not metabolize glufosinate. These results suggest that the resistance of the selected vetiver cell suspension to glufosinate is mainly due to increased GS activity and its decreased sensitivity to the herbicide.     

A Root Box Method to Estimate Virulence of Helicobasidium mompa Using Carrots and Its Comparison with the Conventional Method Using Apple Stocks

A root box method with carrots was developed to estimate virulence of the violet root rot fungus, Helicobasidium mompa, to facilitate short-term screening of many isolates during a year. The root box consisted of two transparent acrylic plates and a plastic bag of vermiculite in which two taproots of carrot were growing and inoculated with the fungus growing on fragments of mulberry twigs. The boxes were kept in a greenhouse at 25°C, and the surface of carrots was observed weekly up to 14 weeks. The virulence of each isolate was determined based on the number of weeks after inoculation required for the fungus to develop infection cushions on the surface of carrots. Results were compared with those from the conventional inoculation method using apple stocks. Two-year-old 456 apple stocks were planted with or without fungal inoculum in 30-cm diam. plastic pots containing commercial soil and placed outdoors in April 1999. Symptoms on plant tops were observed weekly, and the first stocks were killed 14 weeks after inoculation. At the end of trial 1 (6 months) and trial 2 (14 months), apple stocks were dug up to rate disease index (DI) based on hyphal growth and infection cushion formation on the stem base. There was variability in disease severity among replicates as well as isolate variability ; however, the results were similar in both trails. The level of virulence estimated by both methods was almost parallel for a total of 23 isolates from five plant species, except for two isolates from sweet potato that formed no obvious infection cushion on apple roots but on carrot were the most virulent. Received 11 December 2000/ Accepted in revised form 23 March 2001     

Distribution of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Typhula ishikariensis</Emphasis> Biotype A Isolates Belonging to a Predominant Mycelial Compatibility Group

The distribution pattern and frequency of isolates of a snow mold fungus, Typhula ishikariensis biotype A belonging to a predominant MCG (mycelial compatibility group, referred to as super MCG), were surveyed throughout its habitat from northern Honshu to eastern Hokkaido. About 38 and 14% of isolates examined belonged to super MCG in eastern and central Hokkaido, respectively ; however, super MCG was never found in southern Hokkaido or northern Honshu. These findings imply that T. ishikariensis biotype A consists of two populations in Japan, i.e., one that is distributed in Honshu and southern Hokkaido and lacks super MCG isolates, and the other that includes super MCG isolates and exists in central and eastern Hokkaido. The difference in distribution pattern of the two populations is discussed in terms of geological history during the Pleistocene (2 million to 10 thousand years ago). The tendency of global warming, which alleviates freezing damage, was considered to be responsible for the outbreak of this fungus in eastern Hokkaido. Received 6 December 1999/ Accepted in revised form 9 December 1999     

Development of microsatellite markers in cultivated and wild species of sections <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cepa</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phyllodolon</Emphasis> in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Allium</Emphasis>

The potential of microsatellite markers for use in genetic studies has been evaluated in Allium cultivated species (Allium cepa, A. fistulosum) and its allied species (A. altaicum, A. galanthum, A. roylei, A. vavilovii). A total of 77 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer pairs were employed, 76 of which amplified a single product or several products in either of the species. The 29 AMS primer pairs derived from A. cepa and 46 microsatellites primer pairs from A. fistulosum revealed a lot of polymorphic amplicons between seven Allium species. Some of the microsatellite markers were effective not only for identifying an intraspecific F₁ hybrid between shallot and bulb onion but also for applying to segregation analyses in its F₂ population. All of the microsatellite markers can be used for interspecific taxonomic analyses among two cultivated and four wild species of sections Cepa and Phyllodolon in Allium. Generally, our data support the results obtained from recently performed analyses using molecular and morphological markers. However, the phylogeny of A. roylei, a threatened species with several favorable genes, was still ambiguous due to its different positions in each dendrogram generated from the two primer sets originated from A. cepa and A. fistulosum.     

Mapping the relative risk of surface water acidification based on cumulative acid deposition over the past 25 years in Japan

Sensitivity maps of atmospheric acid deposition in Japan have not been updated in 20 years. Here, we propose new relative risk maps of surface water acidification in forests based on a weighted overlay of cumulative potential acid deposition (CPAD) simulated for a 25-year period (1981–2005), including the sensitivities of soil and bedrock to acidification. We assumed that relative acidification risk is high in areas that exhibit high sensitivities of soil and bedrock to acid and have received a large amount of cumulative acid deposition over the past several decades. We aggregated fine soil and bedrock maps into a 20-km mesh for overlay onto an 80-km mesh map of CPAD by considering their spatial structures in Japan. Allocation of the weights among CPAD and soil and bedrock sensitivities was performed based on observational trends in river pH over the past 30 years. The resulting risk map for surface water acidification showed that large areas of western Japan, as well as smaller areas of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, and Kyushu, are at high risk of surface water acidification. Seventy-seven percent of all rivers for which a declining trend in pH was observed from 2001 to 2009 were also high-risk areas. Acid deposition might be one factor controlling surface water acidification in areas with high bedrock sensitivity, in addition to high CPAD and soil sensitivity, although the risk of soil acidification remains unclear.     

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in an aged dog

A 14-year-old female Yorkshire terrier was presented with the complaint of cardiac murmur and convulsive seizure. Thickened mitral valve, left atrial enlargement, excess motions of the left ventricular (LV) free wall and the ventricular septum, and tricuspid, mitral and aortic valve regurgitations were recognized on echocardiography. Follow-up echocardiography revealed the progression of concentric LV hypertrophy and LV outflow obstruction. Clinical symptoms associated with cardiac failure did not develop during the observation period. The pathological examination of the heart revealed that the dog had the morphological hallmarks of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: massive ventricular hypertrophy, disorganization of cardiac muscle cells, interstitial myocardial fibrosis, and abnormal intramural coronary arteries.     

Postnatal development of the mouse volatile papilla taste bud cells

In the present study, we examined specific markers for taste bud cells in the mouse and the postnatal development of volatile papilla taste bud cells in ddY mice. We examined the immunoreactivity of 4 types of carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes, CA I, CA II, CA III and CA VI, as specific markers for taste bud cells, and K8.13 cytokeratin antibody as a specific marker for the lingual epithelial cells. Of the carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes, only CA III immunoreactivity was clearly detected in the spindle shaped gustatory cells. CA VI immunoreactivity was detectable in suspentacular cells. CA I and CA II antibodies did not recognize any taste bud cell specifically. K8.13 cytokeratin immunoreactivity was detected in the lingual epithelial cells, but not in taste bud cells. At 7 days after birth, the suckling phase, very small taste buds developed from the anaplastic gustatory cells. At 14 days after birth, the taste buds showed larger size than those at 7 days after birth. At 21 days birth, after the weaning phase, taste bud structure approximated the mature structure. These results demonstrate the specificity of anti-CA III and anti-CA VI for gustatory cells and suspentacular cells, respectively. These markers should be useful for an analysis of taste bud development in mice.     

Lone atrial fibrillation in a dog

An intact male Pointer aged 9 year was found to have atrial fibrillation (AF). Thoracic radiography and echocardiography as well as routine blood work revealed no cardiac disease. Thus, the dog was diagnosed as lone AF. The arrhythmia disappeared 6 hr after the initiation of the supportive therapy, and relapse was not observed.     

Hepatic lymphangiomatosis in a young dog

A 9-month-old intact male American cocker spaniel was referred because of hepatomegaly and ascites. Ultrasonographic evaluation of the liver revealed congestion and increased parenchymal echogenicity with focal and more hyperechoic nodules. Histopathology of the hepatic lesion revealed diffuse, ill-defined vascular proliferation. A single layer of endothelial cells, which showed signs of minimal cellular atypia, lined the irregular vessels. On immunohistochemistry, the proliferative endothelial cells lining the irregular vessels were positive for an antiserum to factor VIII related antigen. Based on these findings, the dog was diagnosed with hepatic lymphangiomatosis.