The effect of commensal microbiota and feeding corn or wheat/barley-based diets on the apparent gastrointestinal absorption of dl-methionine (MET) and 2-hydroxy-4-methylthiobutanoic acid (MHA-FA) was studied in conventional (n = 32) and gnotobiotic pigs (n = 24). Conventional pigs (CON) were vaginally delivered and sow-reared until weaning at 14 days of age. Gnotobiotic pigs were derived by caesarian section and reared in HEPA (high efficiency particulate air)-filtered isolator units with ad libitum access to a milk-based formula. Corn or wheat/barley-based diets were fed to all pigs from 14 to 24 days of age. At 24 days of age, after an overnight fast, pigs were fed 20 g/kg BW of experimental diet supplemented with 107 Bq of either 3H-l-MET or 3H-l-MHA-FA per kg of feed and chromic oxide (0.5% wt/wt). Pigs were killed for sample collection 3 h after consuming the meal. Residual 3H-MET and 3H-MHA-FA were estimated in gastrointestinal contents as the ratio of 3H : chromic oxide in digesta samples to the ratio of 3H : chromic oxide in feed. In CON pigs, feeding a wheat/barley-based diet increased (P < 0.05) total aerobes, whereas supplementation with MHA-FA increased (P < 0.05) total aerobes and lactobacilli populations in proximal small intestine (SI). Among the gnotobiotic pigs, bacterial contamination occurred such that eight pigs (two isolators) were monoassociated with a Gram-negative bacteria closely related to Providencia spp. and 16 pigs (four isolators) were monoassociated with Gram positive Enterococcus faecium. Species of monoassociated bacterial contaminant and diet composition did not affect residual methionine or MHA-FA in digesta. In both CON and monoassociated (MA) pigs, methionine and MHA-FA were retained in stomach (92%) but disappeared rapidly from proximal SI. Residual methionine and MHA-FA in digesta was not different in MA pigs; however, in CON pigs, less (P < 0.01) apparent residual methionine was found in digesta recovered at 25% (from cranial to caudal) and 75% of SI length compared with MHA-FA. Apparent residual methionine was 16% and 8% compared with 34% and 15% for MHA-FA, at the 25% and 75% locations, respectively. In proximal SI tissue, significantly (P < 0.05) higher radioactivity (cpm/mg wet tissue) was associated with MET pigs (8.56 ± 0.47) as compared to MHA-FA ones (5.45 ± 0.50). This study suggests that microbial metabolism of MHA-FA increases retention in small intestinal digesta relative to methionine and contributes, in part, to the lower bioefficacy of MHA-FA compared to methionine.

Seed development is a series of events involving cell division, followed by cell differentiation and storage activity In legume cotyledons, cell differentiation starts in certain regions and gradually spreads to other parts, thereby building up developmental gradients The entire process appears to be subject to metabolic control The high hexose state of the premature legume embryo as controlled by seed coat-specific invertases favours cell division Differentiation is initiated when hexose decreases and sucrose increases Seed development occurs in a close interaction with seed metabolism and transport processes Movement of photoassimilates from the sieve tubes to the unloading region of the maternal seed tissue is symplasmic and controlled by plasmodesmal passage Sucrose uptake into Vicia faba cotyledons is mediated by a H+-sucrose symporter located in the outer epidermis which generates transfer cells Formation of the sucrose uptake system is induced during the early to mid-cotyledon stage by tissue contact with the maternal seed coat and is controlled by carbohydrate availability In contrast, a hexose transporter gene is also expressed in epidermal cells covering younger, mitotically active regions of the cotyledons The sucrose uptake system apparently generates the high sucrose state immediately preceding the storage phase Sucrose specifically induces storage-associated differentiation processes indicating a specific sucrose-dependent signalling pathway operating in maturing cotyledons Moreover, the mode of sucrose uptake — apoplasmic movement into the epidermal cells with subsequent symplasmic transfer to the storage parenchyma cells — appears to control coordinated cotyledon development Unlike sucrose, amino acid transport into legume cotyledons is passive during early development but at later stages when large amounts of storage proteins are synthesized an additional active uptake system is established to ensure a sufficient supply

The freshwater scud Echinogammarus stammeri is a very abundant benthic crustacean in riverine systems of northern Italy.The molecular physiology of L-[3H]leucine transport across cell membranes of E. stammeri was investigated. At pH 7.4, thepresence of a NaCl gradient stimulated the leucine transport rate, when compared with KCl gradient. By contrast, alkaline pHstrongly inhibited transport activity. In NaCl medium at acidic pH, leucine uptake displayed a specific activity 2.1-fold lowerthan that measured at neutral pH. Analysis of the uptake as a function of external leucine concentration revealed saturation kinetics.Leucine uptake appeared broadly unspecific and it was much strongly inhibited by the non-polar amino acids phenylalanine,methionine, and BCH, as well as by hydrophobic hydroxyacids. These results revealed important differences with respect toamino acid transport systems described in marine crustaceans. Their relevance in the feeding adaptation of the scud is brieflydiscussed.

Responses in variables of amino acid (AA) metabolism across peripheral tissues to feed intake were studied in six sheep (mean live weight 32 kg) prepared with arterio–venous catheters across the hindquarters. Four intakes (0·5, 1·0, 1·5 and 2·5 × maintenance energy) were offered over 2-week periods to each sheep in a Latin square design with two animals replicated. Animals were infused intravenously with a mixture of U-13C-labelled AA for 10 h and integrated blood samples withdrawn from the aorta and vena cava hourly between 5 and 9 h of infusion. Biopsy samples were also taken from skin and m. vastus lateralis. Data from both essential (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, threonine) and nonessential (glycine, proline, serine, tyrosine) AA were modelled to give rates of inward and outward transport, protein synthesis and degradation, plus the fraction of total vascular inflow that exchanged with the hindquarter tissues. Rates of inward transport varied more than 10-fold between AA. For all essential AA (plus serine), inward transport increased with food intake (P<0·04). There were corresponding increases in AA efflux (P<0·05) from the tissues for threonine and the branched-chain AA. Protein synthesis rates estimated from the kinetics of these AA also increased with intake (P<0·02). Rates of inward transport greatly exceeded the amount of AA necessary to support protein retention, but were more similar to rates of protein synthesis. Nutritional or other strategies to enhance AA transport into peripheral tissues are unlikely to increase anabolic responses.