The effects of specific vegetable subtypes on constipation incidence in the general United States population.

Background: While the intake of larger quantities of vegetables has been linked to a reduction in constipation risk, which vegetables in particular underlie this risk reduction remains incompletely understood. As such, the present study was developed to explore correlations between the intake of particular vegetable types and the risk of constipation. Methods: This cross-sectional analysis was based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected from 2005-2010. Classifications and intake assessments for different vegetables were assessed with the Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED), while stool frequency or stool consistency was used to define constipation. Relationships between the intake of particular vegetable components and constipation were assessed through a weighted logistic regression approach. Subgroup and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression analyses were further employed to explore associations between specific vegetable subtypes and constipation. Results: This study included 13,860 eligible subjects, of whom 1,405 and 12,455 were respectively classified into the constipated and non-constipated groups. Following multivariate adjustment, the intake of non-starchy vegetables including orange, red, dark green, and other vegetables was found to be positively associated with a reduction in constipation risk. In contrast, constipation was unrelated to total starchy vegetable or potato intake. Tomatoes, in particular, were associated with a marked decrease in constipation risk (odds ratios: 0.80, 95% confidence interval: 0.71-0.91). These results were confirmed through RCS and subgroup analyses. Conclusion: Non-starchy vegetables, particularly tomatoes, were found to be associated with a pronounced reduction in constipation risk, which was unaffected by the intake of potatoes or starchy vegetables.

The role of inbreeding depression on productive performance in the Italian Holstein breed.

Inbreeding depression has become an urgent issue in cosmopolitan breeds where the massive genetic progress achieved in the latest generations is counterbalanced by a dramatic loss of genetic diversity causing increased health issues. Thus, the aim of this study was to estimate inbreeding depression on productive traits in Holstein dairy cattle. More precisely, we aimed to i) determine the level of inbreeding in 27,735 Italian Holstein dairy cows using pedigree and genotype data, ii) quantify the effect of inbreeding on 305-d in milk yield (MY; kg), fat yield (FY; kg), and protein yield (PY; kg) based on different statistical approaches, iii) determine if recent inbreeding has a more harmful impact than ancestral ones, and iv) quantify chromosomal homozygosity effect on productive traits. Quality control was performed on the autosomal chromosomes resulting in a final dataset of 84,443 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Four statistical models were used to evaluate the presence of inbreeding depression, which included linear regression analysis and division of FPED and FROH into percentile classes. Moreover, FROH was partitioned into i) length classes to assess the role of recent and ancestral inbreeding and ii) chromosome-specific contributions (FROH-CHR). Results evidenced that inbreeding negatively impacted the productive performance of Italian Holstein Friesian cows. However, differences between the estimated FPED and FROH coefficients resulted in different estimates of inbreeding depression. For instance, a 1% increase in FPED and FROH was associated with a decrease in MY of about 44 and 61 kg (P < 0.01). Further, when considering the extreme inbreeding percentile classes moving from the 5th lowest to the 95th highest, there was a reduction of -263 kg and -561 kg per lactation for FPED and FROH. Increased inbreeding, estimated by FPED and FROH, had also a negative effect on PY and FY, either fit as a regressor or percentile classes. When evaluating the impact of inbreeding based on runs of homozygosity (ROH) length classes, longer ROH (over 8 Mb) had a negative effect in all traits, indicating that recent inbreeding might be more harmful than the ancestral one. Finally, results within chromosome homozygosity highlighted specific chromosomes with a more deleterious effect on productive traits.

Inbreeding depression is a reduction in performance or health due to the mating of closely related individuals. The overall aim of this study was to investigate the level of inbreeding in the Italian Holstein dairy cow breed and quantify its negative effect on productive performances. The level of inbreeding was estimated by pedigree (FPED) and genomic data by looking at stretches of homozygosity (FROH). Both methods revealed a reduction in milk yield, fat yield, and protein yield when inbreeding increased. Moreover, the study demonstrated that FROH was able to capture more inbreeding depression compared to FPED. In addition, the more recent inbreeding had a stronger negative impact on productive performances compared to ancestral ones. Then, since the amount of runs of homozygosity can vary across the chromosomes of an individual, the effect of each chromosomal homozygosity region on productive traits was also evaluated. The chromosome-level results might be included in breeding programs to limit the accumulation of homozygosity in particular regions that appear to have a more detrimental effect on productive traits. Overall, this study highlights the importance of avoiding inbreeding in animal breeding programs to keep productive animals in the long term.

The Association of Food Groups and Consumption Time with Hyperuricemia: The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2018.

Hyperuricemia (HUA) is associated with a wide range of diseases and increases the public health burden on society as a whole. In addition to genetic variation, diet plays a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of HUA as an important modifiable behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether food groups and consumption time are associated with HUA. A total of 41,230 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2005 and 2018 were included in the study. All meals, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, were obtained according to their corresponding Food Patterns Equivalents Database dietary data. The binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between food groups, food consumption time and HUA. We found that the intake of fruit (mixed in various forms) (OR = 0.942, 95% CI: 0.909-0.976) or freshly squeezed juices (OR = 0.915, 95% CI: 0.859-0.975), milk (OR = 0.839, 95% CI: 0.808-0.872), and eggs (OR = 0.881, 95% CI: 0.839-0.924), poultry (OR = 1.055, 95% CI: 1.033-1.077) and seafood high in n-3 fatty acids (OR = 1.068, 95% CI: 0.1.018-1.120) at dinner, eating refined grains at breakfast (OR = 0.954, 95% CI: 0.924-0.985) and dinner (OR = 0.962, 95% CI: 0.944-0.980), eating whole grains (OR = 0.908, 95% CI: 0.845-0.976) at lunch, consuming alcoholic beverages or foods at breakfast (OR = 0.748, 95% CI: 0.564-0.990)/lunch (OR = 1.118, 95% CI: 1.008-1.240)/dinner (OR = 1.127, 95% CI: 1.073-1.185) were associated with HUA. Eating particular meals at particular times of the day was related to a lower risk of HUA.

Fine-scale estimation of inbreeding rates, runs of homozygosity and genome-wide heterozygosity levels in the Mangalarga Marchador horse breed.

With the availability of high-density SNP panels and the establishment of approaches for characterizing homozygosity and heterozygosity sites, it is possible to access fine-scale information regarding genomes, providing more than just comparisons of different inbreeding coefficients. This is the first study that seeks to access such information for the Mangalarga Marchador (MM) horse breed on a genomic scale. To this end, we aimed to assess inbreeding levels using different coefficients, as well as to characterize homozygous and heterozygous runs in the population. Using Axiom ® Equine Genotyping Array-670k SNP (Thermo Fisher), 192 horses were genotyped. Our results showed different estimates: inbreeding from genomic coefficients (FROH ) = 0.16; pedigree-based (FPED ) = 0.008; and a method based on excess homozygosity (FHOM ) = 0.010. The correlations between the inbreeding coefficients were low to moderate, and some comparisons showed negative correlations, being practically null. In total, 85,295 runs of homozygosity (ROH) and 10,016 runs of heterozygosity (ROHet) were characterized for the 31 horse autosomal chromosomes. The class with the highest percentage of ROH was 0-2 Mbps, with 92.78% of the observations. In the ROHet results, only the 0-2 class presented observations, with chromosome 11 highlighted in a region with high genetic variability. Three regions from the ROHet analyses showed genes with known functions: tripartite motif-containing 37 (TRIM37), protein phosphatase, Mg2+ /Mn2+ dependent 1E (PPM1E) and carbonic anhydrase 10 (CA10). Therefore, our findings suggest moderate inbreeding, possibly attributed to breed formation, annulling possible recent inbreeding. Furthermore, regions with high variability in the MM genome were identified (ROHet), associated with the recent selection and important events in the development and performance of MM horses over generations.