Search Results (3)

Due to the low populations of Bacteroides sp. in the gut microbiota of sows compared to nursed piglets, sows may not represent an ideal source of Bacteroides sp. for newborn piglets. In this study, we therefore tested the effect of oral administration of a mixture of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bacteroides vulgatus, Bacteroides fragilis and Bacteroides xylanisolvens on the microbiota development of newborn piglets. Oral administration of such a mixture to piglets within 12 h after parturition did not result in any adverse effects. Sequencing of 16S rRNA showed that 4 days after administration, these species formed approx. 20% of total faecal microbiota and affected the development of gut microbiota in treated piglets. The treatment resulted in an increased abundance of Veillonella caviae, Fusobacterium gastrosuis, Dialister sp., Clostridium jeddahitimonense, C. cadaveris, Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum, Actinobacillus indolicus, A. minor, Streptococcus pasteurianus, S. parasuis, S. equinus, S. pluranimalium, S. thoraltensis and S. suis. On the other hand, administration of the Bacteroides mixture suppressed piglet colonisation by C. disporicum and multiple species from family Prevotellaceae. Bacteroides-treated piglets exhibited significantly higher body weight than untreated controls at 3 months of age. Administration of a mixture of Bacteroides shaped the development of gut microbiota in nursed piglets, which resulted in improved parameters at the end of the pre-fattening period. Full article

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether dietary supplementation with an innovative silage (IS) created using 60% olive mill waste, 20% grape pomace, and 20% deproteinised feta cheese waste solids can modulate the composition of the intestinal microbiota in weaned (Exp. 1) and finishing (Exp. 2) pigs. In Exp. 1 (40 day supplementation), forty-five crossbred weaned pigs were randomly assigned to the 0% (Control), 5%, or 10% IS groups (15 replicates/experimental diet). In Exp. 2 (60 day supplementation), eighteen finishing pigs from Exp. 1 were fed the control diet for 8 weeks before being re-assigned to their original experimental groups and fed with the 0% (Control), 5%, or 10% IS diets (six replicates/experimental diet). Performance parameters were recorded. Ileal and caecal digesta and mucosa were collected at the end of each experiment for microbiota analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequencing (five pigs/experimental diet for Exp. 1 and six pigs/experimental diet for Exp. 2). No significant effects on pig growth parameters were observed in both experiments. In Exp. 1, 5% IS supplementation increased the relative abundance of the Prevotellaceae family, Coprococcus genus, and Alloprevotella rava (OTU_48) and reduced the relative abundance of Lactobacillus genus in the caecum compared to the control and/or 10% IS diets (p < 0.05). In Exp. 2, 5% IS supplementation led to compositionally more diverse and different ileal and caecal microbiota compared to the control group (p < 0.05; p = 0.066 for β-diversity in ileum). Supplementation with the 5% IS increased the relative abundance of Clostridium celatum/disporicum/saudiense (OTU_3) in the ileum and caecum and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum (OTU_17) in the caecum and reduced the relative abundance of Streptococcus gallolyticus/alactolyticus (OTU_2) in the caecum compared to the control diet (p < 0.05). Similar effects on C. celatum/disporicum/saudiense and S. gallolyticus/alactolyticus were observed with the 10% IS diet in the caecum (p < 0.05). IS has the potential to beneficially alter the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota in pigs. Full article

Argonaute proteins exist widely in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, and they are of great potential for molecular cloning, nucleic acid detection, DNA assembly, and gene editing. However, their overall properties are not satisfactory and hinder their broad applications. Herein, we investigated a prokaryotic Argonaute nuclease from a mesophilic bacterium Clostridium disporicum (CdAgo) and explored its overall properties, especially with 5′-hydroxylated (5′-OH) guides. We found that CdAgo can exclusively use single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) as guide to cleave ssDNA and plasmid targets. Further, we found the length of the efficient guide is narrower for the 5′-OH guide (17–20 nt) than for the 5′-phosphorylated guide (5′-P, 14–21 nt). Furthermore, we discovered that the 5′-OH guides can generally offer stronger mismatch discrimination than the 5′-P ones. The 5′-OH guides offer the narrower length range, higher mismatch discrimination and more accurate cleavage than the 5′-P guides. Therefore, 5′-OH-guide-directed CdAgo has great potential in biological and biomedical applications. Full article