How the kinetic behavior of organic chickens affects productive performance and blood and meat oxidative status: a study of six poultry genotypes.

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the kinetic behavior, carcass characteristics, oxidative status (blood and meat), and meat fatty acid profiles of 6 organically reared slower growing chicken genotypes (SrG). One hundred male chickens of 6 SrG were used: Ranger Classic (RC), Ranger Gold (RG), Rowan Ranger (RR), RedJA (RJ), CY Gen 5 JA87 (CY), and M22 × JA87 (M). Twenty chickens/genotype were selected to analyze behavior, while, 15 individuals were slaughtered and different traits were analyzed in the blood and drumstick meat. The variables were grouped into different principal components: kinetic activity (PC1, with explorative attitude as the highest score), productive performance (PC2, carcass and head/feet yields), blood (PC3, carbonyls, and TBARS) and meat (PC6, thiols, and TBARS) markers, technological traits (PC4, pH, and color), proximate meat composition (PCA5, moisture, lipids, protein, and ash), fatty acid profile, and nutritional indexes (PC7, IP, and PUFAn-3). Uni- and bivariate analyses showed a strong positive association between kinetic behaviors and blood and meat oxidation and a medium positive association with fatty acid profile and nutritional indexes, whereas a negative association was found between productive performance loads and the technological traits of meat. Generalized linear models showed that all PCs were influenced by genotype. In particular, CY and M resulted as less active genotypes; conversely, RR showed more kinetic activity, whereas RJ, RG, and RC exhibited intermediate levels of activity. Cluster analysis of kinetic behavior and blood or meat oxidative status highlighted 2 groups: nonwalking (NW: CY and M) and walking (W: RC, RG, RR, and RJ) animals. However, in the W group, another was visualized, constituted by genotypes with high kinetic activity resulting in the worst oxidative balance (Walking not trained-genotypes, Wnt: RR and RJ). The present results confirmed that the kinetic behavior of SrG genotypes is negatively correlated with productive performance. Furthermore, a significant association between kinetic behavior and blood (positively correlated) or meat (negatively correlated) oxidative status was noted. Such differences are mainly due to the intrinsic response of the genotypes used (i.e., training-walking capacity).

Fatal systemic toxoplasmosis in a 3-month-old young tibetan goat (Capra hircus).

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common parasitic infections in both humans and animals. It is a frequent cause of abortion and stillbirth in intermediate hosts, especially sheep and goats but rarely causes fatal clinical form in adult animals. CASE PRESENTATION: In contrast, the study reports an unusual fatal case of toxoplasmosis in a young goat naturally infected with type II strain of Toxoplasma gondii. A three-month-old female goat was presented with dyspnea and died few days later. Grossly, lungs were firm, edematous and mottled with disseminated whitish areas. Generalized lymphadenopathy was found. The histopathological examination showed necrotic interstitial bronchopneumonia and necrotizing lymphadenitis with intralesional free and clustered within macrophages tachyzoites of T. gondii. DNA extracted from lungs and lymph nodes was positive for T. gondii by a fast qPCR. PCR-RFLP analysis and sequencing of GRA6 gene showed that the isolated strains belonged to type II genotype. CONCLUSIONS: This is an unusual report of acute systemic toxoplasmosis caused by the type II strain of T. gondii with a fatal outcome in a young goat.

The Arabidopsis thaliana cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase CRK20 modulates host responses to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 infection.

In plants, the cysteine-rich repeat kinases (CRKs) are a sub-family of receptor-like protein kinases that contain the DUF26 motif in their extracellular domains. It has been shown that in Arabidopsis thaliana, CRK20 is transcriptionally induced by pathogens, salicylic acid and ozone (O(3)). However, its role in responses to biotic and abiotic stress remains to be elucidated. To determine the function of CRK20 in such responses, two CRK20 loss-of-function mutants, crk20-1 and crk20-2, were isolated from public collections of Arabidopsis T-DNA tagged lines and examined for responses to O(3) and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000. crk20-1 and crk20-2 showed similar O(3) sensitivities and no differences in the expression of defense genes when compared with the wild-type. However, pathogen growth was significantly reduced, while there were no differences in the induction of salicylic acid related defense genes or salicylic acid accumulation. Furthermore, correlation analysis of CRK20 gene expression suggests that it has a role in the control of H(2)O and/or nutrient transport. We therefore propose that CRK20 promotes conditions that are favorable for Pst DC3000 growth in Arabidopsis, possibly through the regulation of apoplastic homeostasis, and consequently, of the environment of this biotrophic pathogen.

Ozone and nitric oxide induce cGMP-dependent and -independent transcription of defence genes in tobacco.

Here, we analyse the temporal signatures of ozone (O3)-induced hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) and nitric oxide (NO) and the role of the second messenger guanosine3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) in transcriptional changes of genes diagnostic for biotic and abiotic stress responses. Within 90 min O3 induced H2O2 and NO peaks and we demonstrate that NO donors cause rapid H2O2 accumulation in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf. Ozone also causes highly significant, late (> 2 h) and sustained cGMP increases, suggesting that the second messenger may not be required in all early (< 2 h) responses to O3,but is essential and sufficient for the induction of some O3-dependent pathways.This hypothesis was tested resolving the time course of O3-induced transcript accumulation of alternative oxidase (AOX1a), glutathione peroxidase (GPX),aminocyclopropancarboxylic acid synthase (ACS2) that is critical for the synthesis of ethylene, phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PALa) and the pathogenesis-related protein PR1a.The data show that early O3 and NO caused transcriptional activation of the scavenger encoding proteins AOX1a, GPX and the induction of ethylene production through ACS2 are cGMP independent. By contrast, the early response of PALa and the late response of PR1a show critical dependence on cGMP.

NO release by nitric oxide donors in vitro and in planta.

Artificial nitric oxide (NO) donors are widely used as tools to study the role of NO in plants. However, reliable and reproducible characterisation of metabolic responses induced by different NO donors is complicated by the variability of their NO release characteristics. The latter are affected by different physical and biological factors including temperature and light. Here we critically evaluate NO release characteristics of the donors sodium nitroprusside (SNP), S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS), both in vitro and in planta (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. BelW3) and assess their effects on NO dependent processes such as the transcriptional regulation of the mitochondrial alternative oxidase gene (AOX1a), accumulation of H(2)O(2) and induction of cell death. We demonstrate that, contrary to NOS and SNP, GSNO is not an efficient NO generator in leaf tissue. Furthermore, spectrophotometric measurement of NO with a haemoglobin assay, rather than diaminofluorescein (DAF-FM) based detection, is best suited for the quantification of tissue NO. In spite of the different NO release signatures by SNP and NOS in tissue, the NO dependent responses examined were similar, suggesting that there is a critical threshold for the NO response.

Ectopic expression of a basic helix-loop-helix gene transactivates parallel pathways of proanthocyanidin biosynthesis. structure, expression analysis, and genetic control of leucoanthocyanidin 4-reductase and anthocyanidin reductase genes in Lotus corniculatus.

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are plant secondary metabolites and are composed primarily of catechin and epicatechin units in higher plant species. Due to the ability of PAs to bind reversibly with plant proteins to improve digestion and reduce bloat, engineering this pathway in leaves is a major goal for forage breeders. Here, we report the cloning and expression analysis of anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) and leucoanthocyanidin 4-reductase (LAR), two genes encoding enzymes committed to epicatechin and catechin biosynthesis, respectively, in Lotus corniculatus. We show the presence of two LAR gene families (LAR1 and LAR2) and that the steady-state levels of ANR and LAR1 genes correlate with the levels of PAs in leaves of wild-type and transgenic plants. Interestingly, ANR and LAR1, but not LAR2, genes produced active proteins following heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and are affected by the same basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor that promotes PA accumulation in cells of palisade and spongy mesophyll. This study provides direct evidence that the same subclass of transcription factors can mediate the expression of the structural genes of both branches of PA biosynthesis.