Lactiplantibacillus plantarum FRT4 attenuates high-energy low-protein diet-induced fatty liver hemorrhage syndrome in laying hens through regulating gut-liver axis.

BACKGROUND: Fatty liver hemorrhage syndrome (FLHS) becomes one of the most major factors resulting in the laying hen death for caged egg production. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (Lp. plantarum) FRT4 on FLHS model in laying hen with a focus on liver lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota. RESULTS: The FLHS model of laying hens was established by feeding a high-energy low-protein (HELP) diet, and the treatment groups were fed a HELP diet supplemented with differential proportions of Lp. plantarum FRT4. The results indicated that Lp. plantarum FRT4 increased laying rate, and reduced the liver lipid accumulation by regulating lipid metabolism (lipid synthesis and transport) and improving the gut microbiota composition. Moreover, Lp. plantarum FRT4 regulated the liver glycerophospholipid metabolism. Meanwhile, "gut-liver" axis analysis showed that there was a correlation between gut microbiota and lipid metabolites. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that Lp. plantarum FRT4 improved the laying performance and alleviated FLHS in HELP diet-induced laying hens through regulating "gut-liver" axis. Our findings reveal that glycerophospholipid metabolism could be the underlying mechanism for the anti-FLHS effect of Lp. plantarum FRT4 and for future use of Lp. plantarum FRT4 as an excellent additive for the prevention and mitigation of FLHS in laying hens.

Optimization of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Production by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum FRT7 from Chinese Paocai.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a widely available non-protein amino acid whose physiological importance goes beyond its role as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammals. The GABA synthesis ability of ten strains of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum was screened. They produced GABA ranging from 48.19 ± 3.44 to 100.75 ± 1.63 mg/L at 24 h-cultivation. Among them, Lp. plantarum FRT7 showed the highest GABA production. Therefore, FRT7 was chosen for GABA yield optimization. A one-factor-at-a-time strategy analysis of the GABA yield of FRT7 was performed, including the culture temperature, incubation time, inoculum volume, initial pH, the initial amount of monosodium glutamate (MSG), and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) concentration, based on which the response surface methodology (RSM) was performed. After being cultured in an MRS culture medium supplemented with 3% MSG and 2 mmol/L of PLP at 40 °C with an initial pH of 7.0 for 48 h, the GABA reached a maximum yield of 1158.6 ± 21.22 mg/L. The results showed the experimental value of the GABA yield was in good agreement with the predicted values. Furthermore, the results from the RSM also indicated that the initial MSG addition, PLP concentration, and incubation time were significant variables. These results suggest that Lp. plantarum FRT7 has the potential to be a health-beneficial probiotic with commercial capabilities.

Dietary Bacillus licheniformis shapes the foregut microbiota, improving nutrient digestibility and intestinal health in broiler chickens.

Bacillus licheniformis is considered a potential alternative to antibiotic growth promoters of animal growth and health. However, the effects of Bacillus licheniformis on the foregut and hindgut microbiota, and their relationships with nutrient digestion and health, in broiler chickens remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify the effects of Bacillus licheniformis BCG on intestinal digestion and absorption, tight junctions, inflammation, and the fore- and hind-gut microbiota. We randomly assigned 240 1-day-old male AA broilers into three treatment groups: CT (basal diet), BCG1 (basal diet + 1.0 × 108 CFU/kg B. licheniformis BCG), and BCG2 (basal diet + 1.0 × 109 CFU/kg B. licheniformis BCG). On day 42, the jejunal and ileal chyme and mucosa were subjected to analysis of digestive enzyme activity, nutrient transporters, tight junctions, and signaling molecules associated with inflammation. The ileal and cecal chyme were subjected to microbiota analysis. Compared with the CT group, the B. licheniformis BCG group showed significantly greater jejunal and ileal α-amylase, maltase, and sucrase activity; moreover, the α-amylase activity in the BCG2 group was higher than that in the BCG1 group (P < 0.05). The transcript abundance of FABP-1 and FATP-1 in the BCG2 group was significantly greater than that in the CT and BCG1 groups, and the GLUT-2 and LAT-1 relative mRNA levels were greater in the BCG2 group than the CT group (P < 0.05). Dietary B. licheniformis BCG resulted in significantly higher ileal occludin, and lower IL-8 and TLR-4 mRNA levels than observed in the CT group (P < 0.05). B. licheniformis BCG supplementation significantly decreased bacterial community richness and diversity in the ileum (P < 0.05). Dietary B. licheniformis BCG shaped the ileac microbiota by increasing the prevalence of f_Sphingomonadaceae, Sphingomonas, and Limosilactobacillus, and contributed to nutrient digestion and absorption; moreover, it enhanced the intestinal barrier by increasing the prevalence of f_Lactobacillaceae, Lactobacillus, and Limosilactobacillus. Dietary B. licheniformis BCG decreased microbial community diversity by diminishing Desulfovibrio, Alistipes, Campylobacter, Vibrio, Streptococcus, and Escherichia coli-Shigella levels, and down-regulating inflammatory associated molecule expression. Therefore, dietary B. licheniformis BCG contributed to digestion and absorption of nutrients, enhanced the intestinal physical barrier, and decreased intestinal inflammation in broilers by decreasing microbial diversity and optimizing the microbiota structure.

Ammonia-induced oxidative stress triggered proinflammatory response and apoptosis in pig lungs.

Ammonia, a common toxic gas, is not only one of the main causes of haze, but also can enter respiratory tract and directly affect the health of humans and animals. Pig was used as an animal model for exploring the molecular mechanism and dose effect of ammonia toxicity to lung. In this study, the apoptosis of type II alveolar epithelial cells was observed in high ammonia exposure group using transmission electron microscopy. Gene and protein expression analysis using transcriptome sequencing and western blot showed that low ammonia exposure induced T-cell-involved proinflammatory response, but high ammonia exposure repressed the expression of DNA repair-related genes and affected ion transport. Moreover, high ammonia exposure significantly increased 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) level, meaning DNA oxidative damage occurred. In addition, both low and high ammonia exposure caused oxidative stress in pig lungs. Integrated analysis of transcriptome and metabolome revealed that the up-regulation of LDHB and ND2 took part in high ammonia exposure-affected pyruvate metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation progress, respectively. Inclusion, oxidative stress mediated ammonia-induced proinflammatory response and apoptosis of porcine lungs. These findings may provide new insights for understanding the ammonia toxicity to workers in livestock farms and chemical fertilizer plants.

Metabolomic Characteristics of Liver and Cecum Contents in High-Fat-Diet-Induced Obese Mice Intervened with Lactobacillus plantarum FRT10.

Obesity has become a major social problem related to health and quality of life. Our previous work demonstrated that Lactobacillus plantarum FRT10 alleviated obesity in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice by alleviating gut dysbiosis. However, the underlying functions of FRT10 in regulating liver and cecum contents metabolism remain unknown. Liver and cecum contents metabonomics combined with pathway analysis based on ultraperformance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS) were performed to evaluate the alterations of metabolic profiles between obese control mice and obese mice in FRT10-treated groups. The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) score plots showed that there were significant differences in cecum contents and liver markers between experimental groups. In total, 26 potential biomarkers were identified in the liver and 15 in cecum contents that could explain the effect of FRT10 addition in HFD-fed mice. In addition, gut-liver axis analysis indicated that there was a strong correlation between cecum contents metabolites and hepatic metabolites. The mechanism of FRT10 against obesity might be related to the alterations in glycerophospholipid metabolism, primary bile acid biosynthesis, amino metabolism, and purine and pyrimidine metabolism. Studies on these metabolites could help us better understand the role of FRT10 in obesity induced by HFD.

Liver transcriptome analysis reveals biological pathways and transcription factors in response to high ammonia exposure.

Aim: Ammonia is a toxic gas that not only causes environmental pollution, but also is harmful to human health after inhalation. Liver is an important detoxification organ that can convert external or metabolized toxic substances into nontoxic substances. However, the toxic effects of ammonia exposure on livers have not been well studied.Method: In this study, pigs were used as an animal model and were exposed to 80 ppm ammonia (8 h during 12 days), and then, RNA-seq were conducted to explore the key genes in response to high ammonia exposure in livers.Result: Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that the genes associated with hypoxia, inflammatory response, and apoptosis were up-regulated in the ammonia group, but the genes associated with DNA replication, linoleic acid metabolism, and glycolysis were down-regulated. Totally, 556 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including 54 genes that encode the transcription factors (TFs) were identified between the exposure and control groups. GO and KEGG pathway analysis suggested that these DEGs were involved in inflammatory response, oxidative stress, apoptosis, immune, and cell cycle. Furthermore, the TF-target interaction analysis showed that FOS, HIF-1α, JUNB, ATF3, REL, and KLF4 were important TFs in regulating the hepatic gene expression in response to high ammonia exposure.Conclusion: Altogether, our findings not only presented a comprehensive mRNA transcriptome profile of liver after high ammonia exposure, but also found some key genes and TFs that could be used to investigate the toxicity mechanism of high ammonia on livers.

The complete chloroplast genome of Viburnum dilatatum (Adoxaceae).

Viburnum dilatatum Thunb. is a large deciduous tree of Adoxaceae. In this study, the chloroplast genome sequence of V. dilatatum is 158,392 bp, consisting of a large single-copy (LSC) region with 87,070 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region with 18,242 bp , and two inverted repeat (IR) regions with 26,540 bp. The GC content in the chloroplast genome of C. julianae is 38.1%. The chloroplast genome of V. dilatatum contains 126 genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 39 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic tree showed that V. dilatatum was clustered with V. utile.

Comparative Analysis of Soil Microbiome Profiles in the Companion Planting of White Clover and Orchard Grass Using 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Data.

Companion planting is one of the most common and effective planting methods in modern agriculture. White clover (Trifolium repens L.) and orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata L.) are two typical pastures planted together to promote each other's growth. However, the detailed biological foundations of companion planting remain unclear. In this study, we screened typical microbiome profiles under separate and combination planting conditions using 16s RNA gene sequencing techniques. We identified the typical distinctive microorganism subtypes based on the microbiome profiles and recognized the enriched functions of top abundant microorganisms in soil using different planting strategies with the help of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Clusters of Orthologous Groups annotation. This analysis confirmed that the optimal microorganisms and screened functional annotations are correlated with nitrogen fixation; thus, companion planting may improve the yield and efficacy of plants by improving the efficiency of nitrogen fixation.

Identifying Microbiota Signature and Functional Rules Associated With Bacterial Subtypes in Human Intestine.

Gut microbiomes are integral microflora located in the human intestine with particular symbiosis. Among all microorganisms in the human intestine, bacteria are the most significant subgroup that contains many unique and functional species. The distribution patterns of bacteria in the human intestine not only reflect the different microenvironments in different sections of the intestine but also indicate that bacteria may have unique biological functions corresponding to their proper regions of the intestine. However, describing the functional differences between the bacterial subgroups and their distributions in different individuals is difficult using traditional computational approaches. Here, we first attempted to introduce four effective sets of bacterial features from independent databases. We then presented a novel computational approach to identify potential distinctive features among bacterial subgroups based on a systematic dataset on the gut microbiome from approximately 1,500 human gut bacterial strains. We also established a group of quantitative rules for explaining such distinctions. Results may reveal the microstructural characteristics of the intestinal flora and deepen our understanding on the regulatory role of bacterial subgroups in the human intestine.