New Evidence of Alleles (V199I and G52S) at the PRKAG3 (RN) Locus Affecting Pork Meat Quality

Chen, J.F.,Dai, L.H.,Peng, J.,Li, J.L.,Zheng, R.,Zuo, B.,Li, F.E.,Liu, M.,Yue, K.,Lei, M.G.,Xiong, Y.Z.,Deng, C.Y.,Jiang, S.W. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2008 Animal Bioscience Vol.21 No.4

The porcine PRKAG3 (RN) gene encodes the regulatory gamma subunit of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is a good candidate gene affecting meat quality. In this study, the effects of two missense mutations A595G (Ile199Val) and G154A (Gly52Ser) in porcine PRKAG3 gene on meat quality traits were studied in M. Longissimus dorsi (LD), M. Semispinalis capitis (SC) and M. Biceps femoris (BF) from different populations of 326 pigs. The PRKAG3 alleles 199I, 199IV, 52S and 52G were identified with PCR-RFLPs and all genotypes - 199I/199I, 199I/199V, 199V/199V, 52S/52S, 52S/52G and 52G/52G - were found. The frequency of V allele was larger than that of I allele in all populations. I allele frequency was zero in Chinese Meishan pigs (population D) especially. G allele frequency was larger than that of S allele in all populations except Large White (population A). Both variations at the PRKAG3 locus significantly affected these meat quality traits. The pork meat quality has not previously been established in Meishan or crosses thereof. The results suggested that generally pH of LD, SC and BF was higher in Meishan pigs than that in other populations. Moreover, Meishan pigs showed higher water-holding capacity and intramuscular fat (IMF), lower water content and water loss percentage compared to other populations in terms of the two variations. The results present here supply new evidence that alleles V199I and G52S at the PRKAG3 locus affect pork meat quality and provide useful information on pork production.

Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci on Porcine Chromosome 7 Using Combined Data Analysis

Zuo, B.,Xiong, Y.Z.,Su, Y.H.,Deng, C.Y.,Lei, M.G.,Zheng, R.,Jiang, S.W.,Li, F.E. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2004 Animal Bioscience Vol.17 No.10

To further investigate the regions on porcine chromosome 7 that are responsible for economically important traits, phenotypic data from a total of 287 F2 individuals were collected and analyzed from 1998 to 2000. All animals were genotyped for eight microsatellite loci spanning the length of chromosome 7. QTL analysis was performed using interval mapping under the line-cross model. A permutation test was used to establish significance levels associated with QTL effects. Observed QTL effects were (chromosomewide significance, position of maximum significance in centimorgans): Birth weight (<0.01, 3); Carcass length (<0.05, 80); Longissimus muscle area (<0.01, 69); Skin percentage (<0.01, 69); Bone percentage (<0.01, 74); Fat depths at shoulder (<0.05, 54);Mean fat depth (<0.05, 81); Moisture in m. Longissimus Dorsi (<0.05, 88). Additional evidence was also found which suggested QTL for dressing percentage and fat depths at buttock. This study offers confirmation of several QTL affecting growth and carcass traits on SSC7 and provides an important step in the search for the actual major genes involved in the traits of economic interest.

Overdensity of submillimeter galaxies around the <i>z</i> ≃ 2.3 MAMMOTH-1 nebula : The environment and powering of an enormous Lyman-<i>α</i> nebula

Arrigoni Battaia, F.,Chen, Chian-Chou,Fumagalli, M.,Cai, Zheng,Calistro Rivera, G.,Xu, Jiachuan,Smail, I.,Prochaska, J. X.,Yang, Yujin,De Breuck, C. Springer-Verlag 2018 Astronomy and astrophysics Vol.620 No.-

<P>In the hierarchical model of structure formation, giant elliptical galaxies form through merging processes within the highest density peaks known as protoclusters. While high-redshift radio galaxies usually pinpoint the location of these environments, we have recently discovered at <I>z</I> ∼ 2−3 three enormous (> 200 kpc) Lyman-<I>α</I> nebulae (ELANe) that host multiple active galactic nuclei (AGN) and that are surrounded by overdensities of Lyman-<I>α</I> emitters (LAE). These regions are prime candidates for massive protoclusters in the early stages of assembly. To characterize the star-forming activity within these rare structures - both on ELAN and protocluster scales - we have initiated an observational campaign with the <I>James Clerk Maxwell</I> Telescope (JCMT) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) telescopes. In this paper we report on sensitive SCUBA-2/JCMT 850 and 450 <I>μ</I>m observations of a ∼128 arcmin<SUP>2</SUP> field comprising the ELAN MAMMOTH-1, together with the peak of the hosting BOSS1441 LAE overdensity at <I>z</I> = 2.32. These observations unveil 4.0 ± 1.3 times higher source counts at 850 <I>μ</I>m with respect to blank fields, likely confirming the presence of an overdensity also in obscured tracers. We find a strong detection at 850 <I>μ</I>m associated with the continuum source embedded within the ELAN MAMMOTH-1, which - together with the available data from the literature - allow us to constrain the spectral energy distribution of this source to be of an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a far-infrared luminosity of LFIR<SUP>SF</SUP> = 2.4−2.1<SUP>+7.4</SUP>×10<SUP>12</SUP><I>L</I>⊙, and hosting an obscured AGN. Such a source is thus able to power a hard photoionization plus outflow scenario to explain the extended Lyman-<I>α</I>, He II<I>λ</I>1640, and C IV<I>λ</I>1549 emission, and their kinematics. In addition, the two brightest detections at 850 <I>μ</I>m (<I>f</I>850 > 18 mJy) sit at the density peak of the LAEs’ overdensity, likely pinpointing the core of the protocluster. Future multiwavelength and spectroscopic datasets targeting the full extent of the BOSS1441 overdensity have the potential to firmly characterize a cosmic nursery of giant elliptical galaxies, and ultimately of a massive cluster.</P>

A numerical study on mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity with a circular cylinder

G. F. Zheng,하만영,윤현식,Y. G. Park 대한기계학회 2013 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.27 No.1

A two-dimensional numerical simulation is carried out in this study to investigate mixed convection in a lid-driven cavity with an isothermal circular cylinder. The simulation is conducted at three Reynolds numbers of Re = 100, 500, and 1000 under a fixed Grashof number of Gr = 105. The top wall of the cavity moves to the right at a constant velocity and is kept at a low temperature of Tc, whereas the stationary bottom wall is kept at a constant high temperature of Th. The immersed-boundary method, which is based on the finite volume method, is adopted for the boundary of the circular cylinder that is present in the square cavity. The present study aims to investigate the effects of circular cylinder on fluid flow and heat transfer in a cavity at different locations. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the cavity strongly depend on the position of the circular cylinder as well as on the relative magnitude of the forced convection and the natural convection caused by the movement in the top wall of the cavity and the heating at the hot bottom wall, respectively.

Effect of Methionine Source and Dietary Crude Protein Level on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Nutrient Retention in Chinese Color-feathered Chicks

Xi, P.B.,Yi, G.F.,Lin, Y.C.,Zheng, C.T.,Jiang, Z.Y.,Vazquez-Anon, M.,Song, G.L.,Knight, C.D. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2007 Animal Bioscience Vol.20 No.6

A total of 1,200 LinNan Chinese color-feathered chicks were used to study the effects of methionine source [DL-2-hydroxy-4-methylthio-butanoic acid (HMTBa) or DL-methionine (DLM)] and dietary crude protein (CP) level on growth performance, carcass traits, and whole-body nitrogen and fat retention. The trial was designed as a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement, including two CP levels (adequate and low) and two methionine sources (HMTBa and DL-methionine). Diets were formulated for three phases, starter (0-21 d), grower (21-42 d), and finisher (42-63 d). Chicks fed HMTBa had higher daily gain and improved feed efficiency than DLM during the grower phase (p<0.05). A significant two-way interaction was observed for growth performance during the finisher phase and overall (0-63 d). Growth performance was greater for chicks fed HMTBa than DLM on adequate-CP diets (p<0.05), but this was not observed at low-CP level (p>0.05). Chicks fed low-CP diets grew slower, used feed less efficiently during the grower, finisher phase and overall. On d 42, regardless of dietary CP levels, birds fed HMTBa had higher carcass weights, breast and thigh weights than DLM-fed birds (p<0.04). Birds fed low-CP diet had lighter carcass weights and less breast muscle, thigh muscle, and dressing percentage at the end of starter, grower and finisher phases (p<0.05). Whole body composition analyses found that birds fed HMTBa tended to contain more protein and less fat compared to those chicks fed DLM at the end of the starter phase (p<0.10). Low-CP diets increased CP concentration in the whole body at the end of the finisher phase (p = 0.05). HMTBa supplementation increased whole-body N retention rate during the finisher phase and overall (p<0.01), and low-CP diets reduced N intake and whole-body fat retention during the finisher phase and overall (p<0.05). In summary, HMTBa was better than DLM on an equimolar basis for growth performance, carcass traits, and N retention in Chinese color-feathered chicks. Low-CP diets lowered growth performance as well as carcass traits in color-feathered birds, probably due to imbalanced AA profiles.

Effects of Alfalfa Meal on Growth Performance and Gastrointestinal Tract Development of Growing Ducks

Jiang, J.F.,Song, X.M.,Huang, X.,Zhou, W.D.,Wu, J.L.,Zhu, Z.G.,Zheng, H.C.,Jiang, Y.Q. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2012 Animal Bioscience Vol.25 No.10

A study was conducted to evaluate effects of alfalfa meal on growth performance and gastrointestinal tract development of growing layer ducks to provide evidence for application of alfalfa meal in the duck industry. Two hundred and fifty-six healthy Shaoxing 7-wk old growing layer ducks were selected and randomly allocated to 1 of 4 dietary treatments based on corn and soybean meal and containing 0, 3, 6, and 9% of alfalfa meal for 8 wks. Each treatment consisted of 4 replicates of 16 ducks each. Briefly, birds were raised in separate compartments, and each compartment consisted of three parts: indoor floor house, adjacent open area and a connecting water area. The results showed: i) Growing ducks fed alfalfa meal diet were not significantly different in average daily gain, feed intake and gain-to-feed ratio from those fed no alfalfa diet (p>0.05). ii) Alfalfa meal increased the ratio crop, gizzard to live weight, caecum to live weight, the caecum index of growing ducks (p<0.05). iii) Villus height in duodenum and jejunum of growing ducks increased significantly with the increase of alfalfa meal levels (p<0.05). Crypt depth in duodenum and jejunum of growing ducks decreased significantly with the increase of alfalfa meal levels (p<0.05). This experiment showed that feeding of alfalfa meal to growing layer ducks could improve gastrointestinal tract growth and small intestinal morphology without effect on performance. This experiment provides evidence that alfalfa meal is a very valuable feedstuff for growing layer ducks.

New Evidences of Effect of Melanocortin-4 Receptor and Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 Genes on Fat Deposition and Carcass Traits in Different Pig Populations

Chen, J.F.,Xiong, Y.Z.,Zuo, B.,Zheng, R.,Li, F.E.,Lei, M.G.,Li, J.L.,Deng, C.Y.,Jiang, S.W. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2005 Animal Bioscience Vol.18 No.11

The Melanocortin-4 Receptor (MC4R) and Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 (IGF2) are two important candidate genes related to fat deposition and carcass traits. MC4R was found on study on human obesity and then was studied as candidate gene affecting food intake and fat deposition traits in mice and pigs. Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 (IGF2) gene plays an important role on tumor cell proliferation and muscle growth. It also affects fat traits and live weight in pigs. In this paper, MC4R and IGF2 were studied as two candidate genes associated with important economic traits such as fat deposition and carcass traits in five different pig populations. Taq I-PCR-RFLP and Bcn I-PCR-RFLP were respectively used to detect the polymorphism of genotypes of MC4R and IGF2 genes. Different MC4R genotype frequencies were observed in four populations. IGF2 genotype frequencies were also different in two populations. The results of association analysis show both MC4R and IGF2 genes were significantly associated with fat deposition and carcass traits in about 300 pigs. This work will add new evidence of MC4R and IGF2 affecting fat deposition and carcass traits in pigs and show that two genes can be used as important candidate genes for marker assistant selection (MAS) of growth and lean meat percentage in pigs.

Oviduct-specific Glycoprotein 1 Locus is Associated with Litter Size and Weight of Ovaries in Pigs

Niu, B.Y.,Xiong, Y.Z.,Li, F.E.,Jiang, S.W.,Deng, C.Y.,Ding, S.H.,Guo, W.H.,Lei, M.G.,Zheng, R.,Zuo, B.,Xu, D.Q.,Li, J.L. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2006 Animal Bioscience Vol.19 No.5

Oviduct-specific glycoprotein 1 (OVGP1) is implicated in playing a role in fertilization and early embryo development. In this study, we have obtained the sequence of intron 9 of OVGP1 gene in swine. Comparative sequencing of Meishan (a native Chinese breed) and Large White pig breeds revealed an A/T substitution at position 943. A PCR-EcoRI-RFLP assay was developed to detect this mutation. Polymorphism analysis in Qingping animals showed that pigs with BB genotype had lower number of piglets born alive (NBA) in multiple parities than pigs with AA (p<0.05) and AB genotype (p<0.01). In Large $White{\times}Meishan$ ($LW{\times}M$) $F_2$ offspring, the weight of both ovaries (OW) of the BB genotype was significantly lighter than that of AB (p = 0.05) and AA (p<0.01) genotypes. Analysis of the data also revealed that the mutation locus affected these two traits mostly by additive effects. These studies indicated that the polymorphism was associated with NBA and OW in two distinct populations and further investigations in more purebreds or crossbreds are needed to confirm these results.

Effect of the Transformed Lactobacillus with Phytase Gene on Pig Production Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gut Microbes and Serum Biochemical Indexes

Yin, Q.Q.,Chang, J.,Zuo, R.Y.,Chen, L.Y.,Chen, Q.X.,Wei, X.Y.,Guan, Q.F.,Sun, J.W.,Zheng, Q.H.,Yang, X.,Ren, G.Z. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2010 Animal Bioscience Vol.23 No.2

In order to improve the availability of phytase and probiotics together, a phytase gene from Aspergillus ficuum has been expressed in Lactobacillus. In this study, the transformed Lactobacillus with phytase gene was fed to pigs to determine its effect on pig production, feed conversion and gut microbes. Forty eight, 60-day-old, castrated pigs (Duroc${\times}$Landrace${\times}$Pietrain) were assigned to 6 groups, 8 pigs for each group. Group 1 was the control, group 2 was added with chlortetracycline (500 mg/kg), group 3 was added with the transformed Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 20% (w/w) of calcium monohydrogen phosphate (CMP, $CaHPO_{4}$) removed, group 4 was added with the natural Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 20% (w/w) of CMP removed, group 5 was added with the transformed Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 40% (w/w) of CMP removed, group 6 was added with phytase (500 mg/kg) with 40% (w/w) of CMP removed. The results showed: i) the average daily gain (ADG) was improved in groups 2, 3 and 4 (p<0.05); ii) the diarrhea rates in the groups added with Lactobacillus were lower than in the other groups (p<0.05), in which the transformed Lactobacillus had more effect on reducing digestive disease; iii) the transformed Lactobacillus was most effective in improving the digestibilities of crude protein (CP), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), compared with the other groups (p<0.05); iv) Lactobacillus could increase lactic acid bacterium number and ammonia concentrations, and decrease pH values and E. coli number in pig feces (p<0.05); v) the phytase activity in the feces of pigs fed with the transformed Lactobacillus was 133.32 U/g, which was higher than in group 4 (9.58 U/g, p<0.05), and was almost the same as group 6 (135.94 U/g); vi) the transformed Lactobacillus could increase serum concentrations of IgA, triglyceride, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity (p<0.05), and had no significant effect on other serum indexes (p>0.05).

Association of the A-G Polymorphism in Porcine Adiponectin Gene with Fat Deposition and Carcass Traits

Dai, L.H.,Xiong, Y.Z.,Deng, C.Y.,Jiang, S.W.,Zuo, B.,Zheng, R.,Li, F.E.,Lei, M.G. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2006 Animal Bioscience Vol.19 No.6

The adiponectin gene is known to be involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis involving food intake, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Human adiponectin gene polymorphisms have been recently reported to be associated with obesity, insulin sensitivity and the risk of type 2 diabetes. The present study was carried out to investigate the porcine adiponectin gene as a candidate gene for fat deposition and carcass traits. A mutation of A178G of the porcine adiponectin gene that resulted in substitution of the amino acid Isoleucine to Valine was identified. AcyI PCR-RFLP was used to detect the polymorphism of the genotypes in five different pig populations (Large White, Landrace, Duroc, Chinese breeds Meishan and Qingping). The A allele frequency was significantly higher among subjects from Chinsese lard type breeds, while the G allele was the only one present in those from Western lean type breeds. To determine if there was an association of the polymorphism with phenotypic variation, the mutation was tested in 267 pigs of the "Large $White{\times}Meishan$" F2 resource population. The results of association analyses showed significant associations of the genotypes with fat deposition and carcass traits. Allele G was significantly associated with increase in loin eye height, loin eye area and lean meat percentage and bone percentage, and decrease in fat mean percentage, ratio of lean to fat, shoulder fat thickness, 6-7 rib fat thickness, thorax-waist fat thickness and buttock fat thickness. The substitution of A178G (Ile60Val) happened to be located at amino acid 60 in the collagenous domain of porcine adiponectin which might affect the association into higher-order structures, and accordingly affect the posttranslational modifications and optimal biological activity of the multimeric forms. The identified functional polymorphism provides new evidence of adiponectin as an important candidate gene affecting fat deposition and carcass traits in pigs.