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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #364970
Research Project: Biophotonics - The Application of Novel Imaging Methodologies to Livestock Production Research

Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit

Title: Effects of dietary supplementation of l-methionine vs. dl-methionine on performance, plasma concentrations of free amino acids and other metabolites, and myogenesis gene expression in young growing pigs

Author
item YANG, ZHONGYUE - Mississippi State University
item MD SHAMIMUL, HASAN - Mississippi State University
item HTOO, JOHN - Evonik Degussa Gmbh
item BURNETT, DERRIS - Mississippi State University
item FEUGANG, JEAN - Mississippi State University
item CRENSHAW, MARK - Mississippi State University
item LIAO, SHENGFA - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Translational Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/24/2018
Publication Date: 1/1/2019
Citation: Yang, Z., Md Shamimul, H., Htoo, J., Burnett, D., Feugang, J., Crenshaw, M., Liao, S. 2019. Effects of dietary supplementation of l-methionine vs. dl-methionine on performance, plasma concentrations of free amino acids and other metabolites, and myogenesis gene expression in young growing pigs. Translational Animal Science. 3(1):329-339. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txy109.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txy109

Interpretive Summary: Methionine (Met), the second or third limiting amino acid (AA) in typical swine diets, plays important roles in promoting swine health and growth, especially, muscle growth. Whereas dl-Met products have been used in swine industry for many years, l-Met products have been developed recently. This research used young barrows to study the effects of supplemental l-Met or dl-Met on nutrient metabolism, muscle gene expression, and growth performance of pigs. The findings indicate that the bioefficacy of l-Met is not different from that of dl-Met, which is likely because of an efficient conversion of d-Met to l-Met by pigs.

Technical Abstract: Twenty crossbred young barrows (initial body weight [BW] 21.2 ± 2.7 kg) were randomly assigned to 20 individual pens and two dietary treatments according to a completely randomized design with pigs serving as the experiment unit (n = 10). Two corn and soybean meal-based diets (diets 1 and 2) were formulated to meet or exceed the recommended requirements for energy, AA, and other nutrients (NRC. 2012. Nutrient requirements of swine, 11th ed. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; AMINODat 5.0). Crystalline l-Met and dl-Met were supplemented to diets 1 and 2 (both at 0.13%, as-fed basis), respectively. After 4 wk of an ad libitum feeding trial, BW and feed intake were measured to calculate average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gainto- feed ratio (G:F). Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein for analyses of plasma AA and metabolite concentrations. The longissimus dorsi muscle samples were collected for analysis of myogenesis gene expression. Data were analyzed using Student’s t-test. There were no differences (P = 0.56 to 0.94) in ADG, ADFI, or G:F between pigs fed the two experimental diets and no differences between diets were observed in plasma free AA concentrations. No differences were observed between pigs fed the two diets in expression of mRNA for eight myogenesis-related genes, which were myogenic differentiation 1, myogenin, myogenic factors 5, muscle regulatory factor 4 (a.k.a. myogenic factors 6), and myocyte enhancer factors 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D.