Formation mechanism, environmental sensitivity and functional characteristics of succinylated ovalbumin/ε-polylysine electrostatic complexes: The roles of succinylation modification and ε-polylysine combination.

Biocomplex materials formed by oppositely charged biopolymers (proteins) tend to be sensitive to environmental conditions and may lose part functional properties of original proteins, and one of the approaches to address these weaknesses is protein modification. This study established an electrostatic composite system using succinylated ovalbumin (SOVA) and ε-polylysine (ε-PL) and investigated the impact of varying degrees of succinylation and ε-PL addition on microstructure, environmental responsiveness and functional properties. Molecular docking illustrated that the most favorable binding conformation was that ε-PL binds to OVA groove, which was contributed by the multi­hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Transmission electron microscopy observed that SOVA/ε-PL had a compact spherical structure with 100 nm. High-degree succinylation reduced complex sensitivity to heat, ionic strength, and pH changes. ε-PL improved the gel strength and antibacterial properties of SOVA. The study suggests possible uses of SOVA/ε-PL complex as multifunctional protein complex systems in the field of food additives.

[Association between chicken A-FABP gene polymorphisms and growth and body composition traits].

This experiment was designed to study the effects of polymorphism of A-FABP gene on growth and body composition traits in chicken. The 10th generation broiler population, derived from the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content (NEAUHLF) was used. Polymorphism among individuals was detected by DNA sequencing, PCR-RFLP, PCR-LP, and DHPLC. Linkage disequilibrium analysis for eight SNPs was performed, and five htSNPs were selected to construct haplotypes. The association analysis between the individual SNPs and haplotypes and growth and body composition traits were investigated, respectively. The results showed that there were consistently significant effects on muscle stomach weight (MSW) and percentage of muscle stomach (MSW/BW) (Pamp;0.05) in the seven SNPs (except for SNP 5) and haplotypes, but no significant effect on any other trait (P>0.05). Due to no evidence on effects of A-FABP for digestion system in other species, future experiments need to be developed to confirm whether A-FABP could be a major gene of MSW and MSW/BW traits in broiler chicken.