פרסומים

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several studies have demonstrated the antimicrobial, antihelminthic, and antioxidant potential of the active ingredients of pomegranate (PMG) extracts, suggesting their preventive and curative role in several gastrointestinal disorders. In the present study, the authors evaluated the effects of oral PMG supplementation on intestinal structural changes, enterocyte proliferation, and apoptosis during methotrexate (MTX)-induced intestinal damage in a rat. METHODS: Male rats were divided into 4 experimental groups: control rats; CONTR-PMG rats were treated with oral PMG given by gavage once a day 72 hours before and 72 hours following vehicle injection; MTX rats were treated with single dose of methotrexate; and MTX-PMG rats were treated with oral PMG following injection of MTX. Intestinal mucosal damage, mucosal structural changes, enterocyte proliferation, and enterocyte apoptosis were determined 72 hours following MTX injection. Western blotting was used to determine phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) and caspase 3 protein levels. RESULTS: MTX-PMG rats demonstrated greater jejunal and ileal bowel and mucosal weights, greater jejunal and ileal mucosal DNA and protein levels, greater villus height in jejunum and ileum and crypt depth in ileum, compared with MTX animals. A significant decrease in enterocyte apoptosis in ileum of MTX-PMG rats (vs MTX) was associated with a decrease in caspase 3 protein expression as well as increased cell proliferation, which was correlated with elevated p-ERK protein levels. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with oral PMG prevents mucosal injury and improves intestinal recovery following MTX injury in the rat.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several studies have demonstrated the antimicrobial, antihelminthic, and antioxidant potential of the active ingredients of pomegranate (PMG) extracts, suggesting their preventive and curative role in several gastrointestinal disorders. In the present study, the authors evaluated the effects of oral PMG supplementation on intestinal structural changes, enterocyte proliferation, and apoptosis during methotrexate (MTX)-induced intestinal damage in a rat. METHODS: Male rats were divided into 4 experimental groups: control rats; CONTR-PMG rats were treated with oral PMG given by gavage once a day 72 hours before and 72 hours following vehicle injection; MTX rats were treated with single dose of methotrexate; and MTX-PMG rats were treated with oral PMG following injection of MTX. Intestinal mucosal damage, mucosal structural changes, enterocyte proliferation, and enterocyte apoptosis were determined 72 hours following MTX injection. Western blotting was used to determine phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) and caspase 3 protein levels. RESULTS: MTX-PMG rats demonstrated greater jejunal and ileal bowel and mucosal weights, greater jejunal and ileal mucosal DNA and protein levels, greater villus height in jejunum and ileum and crypt depth in ileum, compared with MTX animals. A significant decrease in enterocyte apoptosis in ileum of MTX-PMG rats (vs MTX) was associated with a decrease in caspase 3 protein expression as well as increased cell proliferation, which was correlated with elevated p-ERK protein levels. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with oral PMG prevents mucosal injury and improves intestinal recovery following MTX injury in the rat.

The effect of food supplement to Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) nests during the nestling period (from hatching to fledging) was studied in two nesting colonies in Israel - Alona and Jerusalem. Our hypotheses was that food supplement will have a greater effect on fledgling success in the food-limited, urban colony of Jerusalem, than in the rural colony of Alona. Indeed, food supplement had a significantly positive effect on breeding success in both colonies. However, and contrary to our prediction, the decrease in chick mortality between supplemented and control nests in Jersualem was actually smaller than in Alona. This implies either that additional factors, possibly urbanization associated, other than food limitation, might be responsible for the difference in nesting success of Lesser Kestrels between Alona and Jersualem, and/or that the amount of additional food provided to supplemented nests (three mice per chick per week), was not enough.

Soil vulnerability to heavy metal pollution is low in soils exhibiting an ability to strongly adsorb heavy metals on their geochemical fractions. Organic matter (OM) is among other components of soils, one of the most effective sorbing fractions. Compost addition is often used for soil remediation thereby enriching the soil with OM. However, compost is often enriched with heavy metals and thereby may induce adverse effects on the soil and plants growing in them. Compost-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) can mobilize heavy metals. The balance between two contrasting effects of compost—mobilization and immobilization of heavy metals—was studied under the conditions of adsorption–desorption batch experiment. Metal adsorption to different geochemical fractions of soil treated with compost was examined by a combined batch-adsorption experiment and a sequential extraction procedure. Compost-derived DOM mobilized Cu at low loading levels, whereas adsorption of Cd and Pb was not decreased by DOM application. Compost was found to be a source of an important reducible oxides fraction (RO—sorbing and fixation fraction) and also of the OM geochemical fractions that most commonly immobilizes heavy metals. The Langmuir and Freundlich models employed in our study exhibited a good fit for most of data the experimental data obtained on bulk samples. Adsorption of the metals on operationally defined geochemical fractions was described by a linear function in several experimental instances. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

During the process of bioethanol production, cellulose is hydrolyzed into its monomeric soluble units. For efficient hydrolysis, a chemical and/or mechanical pretreatment step is required. Such pretreatment is designed to increase enzymatic digestibility of the cellulose chains inter alia by de-crystallization of the cellulose chains and by removing barriers, such as lignin from the plant cell wall. Biological pretreatment, in which lignin is decomposed or modified by white-rot fungi, has also been considered. One disadvantage in biological pretreatment, however, is the consumption of the cellulose by the fungus. Thus, fungal species that attack lignin with only minimal cellulose loss are advantageous. The secretomes of white-rot fungi contain carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) including lignin-modifying enzymes. Thus, modification of secretome composition can alter the ratio of lignin/cellulose degradation.

In many countries sows are kept in individual stalls from insemination up to just few days prior to farrowing. The overall objective of this study was to examine group housing management system for sows during gestation as an alternative for individual confinement stalls, and the possible effects on their welfare, production and reproduction performances. Accordingly, the study included three specific objectives: (1) to compare parameters of production, reproduction, and welfare of sows housed in groups (either 30 or 7 sows/group; Large Group: LG, Small Group: SG, respectively) during gestation as compared to individual confinement stalls (IS); (2) to compare saliva cortisol of pregnant sows throughout gestation, when housed in groups of three different sizes (either 7, 15 or 30 sows per pen group); and (3) to compare sows' production and reproduction performances at the herd level, before, during and after practically transforming from a management of individual confinement stalls to a group housing system, in a large commercial swine farm over a six-year period. Mean cycle length (weaning-to-weaning) was shorter in group housing management as compared to individual stalls (P = 0.0110), but gestation length did not differ among the three groups. Overall farrowing rate (sows farrowed out of those inseminated) was higher (P ≤ 0.0134) for sows housed in groups (either SG or LG). Furthermore, there was a tendency towards a higher number of total born (P = 0.1033), and born alive piglets (P = 0.0862), in group housing system as compared to individual housing management; however, it did not differ between the LG and SG groups. Injuries and lameness index (ILI) of sows improved significantly over the gestation period in group housing management. Group saliva cortisol during gestation did not differ significantly among groups of 7, 15, or 30 sows, except on the first saliva sampling, just after sows were mixed into groups, where cortisol level was significantly higher in sows housed in a pen of 30 sows. Production and reproduction performances at the herd level, over a 6-years period- before, during and after transforming to a group housing system, improved significantly: shortened cycle length, increased farrowing rate, and increased number of total born and born alive piglets. In conclusion, group housing management during gestation was associated with better reproduction, productivity and welfare of sows, as compared to individual stalls. A welfare friendly housing system can be beneficial and effective for both the farmers and the animals.

The prenatal circulatory system is adaptive and capable of plasticity designed for the needs of the growing tissue. When a broiler embryo is faced with hypoxic stress, the process of angiogenesis in tissues begins. Exposure to hypoxic conditions of 17% oxygen during the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) development (E5 to E12) affected the circulatory system and contributed to an increase in the blood oxygen carrying capacity. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of hypoxic exposure during CAM development on post-hatch performance of broilers and to examine whether hypoxic exposure improved sustainability of birds exposed to acute heat stress.Two consecutive trials, with male broilers from each of the incubation treatments-optimal conditions and exposure to hypoxia of 15 or 17% oxygen, for 12 h/day, during CAM development-were conducted. In experiment 1, 60 male chicks from each group were raised in individual cages. In experiment 2, 160 male chicks from each group were raised in 40-chick pens until marketing. On d 35, 20 birds from each group were transferred to individual cages kept at a temperature of 23°C for 72 h, and then birds were exposed to 35°C for 5 hours. Body temperatures were measured at 0, 2, and 5 h of the heat exposure. In both experiments BW, feed intake, and FCR were recorded. At marketing, chicks were slaughtered, and relative weights of breast muscle, abdominal fat pad, heart, and liver were calculated.Hypoxia treatment resulted in a FCR advantage. Food intake was similar in all treatments, but groups exposed to hypoxia grew better than controls until the age of 35 days. Hypoxia-treated groups had higher relative breast, heart, and liver weights than controls. Body temperatures of hypoxia-treated chickens remained lower during heat stress exposure, and their mortality rate was lower as well. Intermittent exposure to moderate hypoxia during CAM development confers advantages to broilers in feed utilization efficiency and in coping with heat stress. It may be considered as a mitigating step in incubation to facilitate broilers in achieving their full growth potential.

The mesotocinergic (MTergic) and dopaminergic (DAergic) systems have been documented to play pivotal roles in maternal behaviors in native Thai chickens. In native Thai chickens, plasma prolactin (PRL) concentrations are associated with maternal behaviors, which are also controlled by the DAergic system. However, the role of MT in conjunction with the roles of DA and PRL on the neuroendocrine regulation of the transition from incubating to rearing behavior has never been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of MT, DA, and PRL during the transition from incubating to rearing behavior in native Thai hens. Using an immunohistochemistry technique, the numbers of MT-immunoreactive (-ir) and tyrosine hydroxylase-ir (TH-ir, a DA marker) neurons were compared between incubating hens (INC; n = 6) and hens for which the incubated eggs were replaced with 3 newly hatched chicks for 3 days after 6, 10, and 14 days of incubation (REC; n = 6). Plasma PRL concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results revealed that the numbers of MT-ir neurons within the nucleus supraopticus, pars ventralis (SOv), nucleus preopticus medialis (POM), and nucleus paraventricularis magnocellularis (PVN) increased in the REC hens when compared with those of the INC hens at 3 different time points (at days 9, 13, and 17). On the other hand, the number of TH-ir neurons in the nucleus intramedialis (nI) decreased in the REC13 and REC17 hens when compared with those of the INC hens. However, the number of TH-ir neurons in the nucleus mamillaris lateralis (ML) only decreased in the REC13 hens when compared with the INC13 hens. The decrease in the numbers of TH-ir neurons within the nI and ML is associated with the decrease in the levels of plasma PRL. This study suggests that the presence of either eggs or chicks is the key factor regulating the MTergic system within the SOv, POM, and PVN and the DAergic system within the nI and ML during the transition from incubating to rearing behavior in native Thai chickens. The results further indicate that these two systems play pivotal roles in the transition from incubating to rearing behavior in this equatorial species.

Current breeding relies mostly on random mutagenesis and recombination to generate novel genetic variation. However, targeted genome editing is becoming an increasingly important tool for precise plant breeding. Using the CRISPR-Cas system combined with the bean yellow dwarf virus rolling circle replicon, we optimized a method for targeted mutagenesis and gene replacement in tomato. The carotenoid isomerase (CRTISO) and phytoene synthase 1 (PSY1) genes from the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway were chosen as targets due to their easily detectable change of phenotype. We took advantage of the geminiviral replicon amplification as a means to provide a large amount of donor template for the repair of a CRISPR-Cas-induced DNA double-strand break (DSB) in the target gene, via homologous recombination (HR). Mutagenesis experiments, performed in the Micro-Tom variety, achieved precise modification of the CRTISO and PSY1 loci at an efficiency of up to 90%. In the gene targeting (GT) experiments, our target was a fast-neutron-induced crtiso allele that contained a 281-bp deletion. This deletion was repaired with the wild-type sequence through HR between the CRISPR-Cas-induced DSB in the crtiso target and the amplified donor in 25% of the plants transformed. This shows that efficient GT can be achieved in the absence of selection markers or reporters using a single and modular construct that is adaptable to other tomato targets and other crops.