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Abstract The adipose and liver tissues influence the fatty acid metabolism, being largely responsible for regulating their biosynthesis, degradation and storage in body tissues, as well as for their secretion in milk and meat production from ruminants. Therefore, a better understanding of the functionality of fatty acid metabolism in these tissues and the factors that affect it, could provide the basis for the design of productive strategies in ruminants. Thus, the aim of this review is to present a general overview of the functionality and metabolism of fatty acids in the adipose and liver tissues in production ruminants. From the review, it could be established that fatty acids and triglycerides are the main lipid types in adipose and liver tissues. Adipose tissue is the main energy storage site for both ruminants and non-ruminants. Adipose tissue is metabolically associated with liver tissue through an equilibrium that regulates the processes of β-oxidation, de novo synthesis, and fatty acid transport at a tissue level. Finally, it was established that the fatty acids metabolism in adipose and liver tissue is affected by several factors, including nutrition and level of dietary restriction, genetics, physiological state, and environment, being nutrition the main factor.

The speed of absorption of dietary amino acids by the gut varies according to the type of ingested dietary protein. This could affect postprandial protein synthesis, breakdown, and deposition. To test this hypothesis, two intrinsically 13C-leucine-labeled milk proteins, casein (CAS) and whey protein (WP), of different physicochemical properties were ingested as one single meal by healthy adults. Postprandial whole body leucine kinetics were assessed by using a dual tracer methodology. WP induced a dramatic but short increase of plasma amino acids. CAS induced a prolonged plateau of moderate hyperaminoacidemia, probably because of a slow gastric emptying. Whole body protein breakdown was inhibited by 34% after CAS ingestion but not after WP ingestion. Postprandial protein synthesis was stimulated by 68% with the WP meal and to a lesser extent (+31%) with the CAS meal. Postprandial whole body leucine oxidation over 7 h was lower with CAS (272 +/- 91 micromoles . kg-1) than with WP (373 +/- 56 micromoles . kg-1). Leucine intake was identical in both meals (380 micromoles . kg-1). Therefore, net leucine balance over the 7 h after the meal was more positive with CAS than with WP (P 0.05, WP vs. CAS). In conclusion, the speed of protein digestion and amino acid absorption from the gut has a major effect on whole body protein anabolism after one single meal. By analogy with carbohydrate metabolism, slow and fast proteins modulate the postprandial metabolic response, a concept to be applied to wasting situations

Many plants synthesize and accumulate proline in response to osmotic stress. Despite the importance of this pathway, however, the exact metabolic route and enzymes involved in the synthesis of proline in plants have not been unequivocally identified. We report here the isolation of a mothbean (Vigna aconitifolia) cDNA clone encoding a bifunctional enzyme, delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS), with both gamma-glutamyl kinase and glutamic-gamma-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activities that catalyzes the first two steps in proline biosynthesis. The two enzymatic domains of P5CS correspond to the ProB and ProA proteins of Escherichia coli and contain a leucine zipper in each domain, which may facilitate inter- or intramolecular interaction of this protein. The Vigna P5CS enzyme activity is feedback regulated by proline but is less sensitive to end-product inhibition than is the E. coli gamma-glutamyl kinase. The P5CS gene is expressed at high levels in Vigna leaves and is inducible in roots subjected to salt stress, suggesting that P5CS plays a key role in proline biosynthesis, leading to osmoregulation in plants

The heavy-metal accumulator Brassica juncea L. is a high-biomass crop able to extract heavy-metal ions from the soil, a substantial part being translocated from root to shoot. Previous work has shown that Cd accumulation is accompanied by massive formation of phytochelatins (PCs). Rapid de novo synthesis of PCs in roots and leaves requires an increased synthesis of the tripeptide glutathione (GSH), which in turn depends on increased sulfur assimilation. Therefore. we have cloned cDNAs for three enzymes involved in sulfur assimilation, i.e. a putative low-affinity sulfate transporter (LAST) and two isoforms each for ATP sulfurylase (ATPS) and APS reductase (APSR). As degradation of glucosinolates might provide an additional sulfur source under stress, we also cloned a myrosinase (MYR). RNA blot analysis of transcript amounts indicated that upon Cd exposure (25 microM) the expression of ATPS and APSR in roots and leaves of 6-week-old Brassica juncea plants was strongly increased, whereas the expression of MYR was unaffected. LAST transcripts were significantly reduced in the root but remained unchanged in the leaves. Concomitant with Cd induction of ATPS and APSR mRNAs, cysteine concentrations in roots and leaves increased by 81% and 25%, respectively, whereas GSH concentrations decreased in roots and leaves by 39% and 48%, respectively. In agreement with our previous report on Cd induction of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase in B. juncea, the results indicate coordinate changes of expression for several sulfur assimilation enzymes in response to an increased demand for cysteine during PC synthesis.

In the semiarid Intermountain West, boxelder, Acer negundo, var. interior, a deciduous, dieocious tree, exhibits significant habitat-specific sex ratio biases. Although the overall sex ratio (male/female) does not deviate significantly from one, the sex ratio is significantly male biased (1.62) in drought-prone habitats, while it is significantly female biased (0.65) in moist, streamside habitats. The causes underlying gender-specific habitat associations in this species are not known. We hypothesized that spatial segregation of the sexes is maintained by differences in gender-specific photosynthetic behavior, water relations characteristics, and both instantaneous and integrated water-use efficiency. Gender-specific physiological characteristics were measured and related to growth, reproduction, population age structure, and habitat distribution of male and female trees. Under both field and controlled-environment conditions, males and females differed significantly in a number of physiological traits. Males maintained lower stomatal conductance to water vapor (g), transpiration (E), net carbon assimilation (A), leaf internal CO\"2 concentration (c\"i), carbon isotope discrimination (@D; an index of time-integrated c\"i and water-use efficiency), and higher instantaneous (A/E) and long-term (@D) water-use efficiency than females. Furthermore, male trees exhibited greater stomatal sensitivity to both declining soil water content and increasing leaf-to-air vapor pressure gradients, a measure of evaporative demand. Higher rates of carbon fixation in female trees were correlated with higher g, higher leaf nitrogen concentrations, and greater stomatal densities. For females growing in both wet and dry habitats, vegetative shoots had higher growth rates than reproductive shoots, while for males, growth rates of the two shoot types did not differ. In streamside habitats, female trees exhibited significantly greater vegetative shoot growth when compared to male trees. In contrast, males showed slightly greater vegetative and much greater reproductive shoot growth in non-streamside habitats. Regardless of habitat or growing conditions, females allocated proportionately more of their aboveground biomass to reproduction than did males. These results suggest that (1) gender-specific physiological traits can help explain the maintenance of habitat-specific sex ratio biases in A. negundo along a soil moisture gradient, and (2) that the combination of the gender-specific physiology, growth, and allocation differences contribute to differences in the size (=age) structure of male and female plants within the population. Gender-specific physiological differences may have evolved as a product of selection to meet significantly different costs associated with reproduction in male and female plants.

Effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) on photosynthetic characteristics of tomato grown under suboptimal conditions were investigated to evaluate the potential value of ALA spraying in vegetables. The net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), coefficient of photochemical quenching (qP), antenna transformation efficiency (Fv'/Fm'), light compensation point (LCP), CO2 compensation point (CCP) and chlorophyll (chl) contents of tomato stressed by suboptimal temperature (17 deg C/12 deg C) and suboptimal photon flux density (250 micromol/square m/s) were decreased, but intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) was increased distinctly. Compared with the parameters of tomato pretreated with water, Pn, Gs, Fv/Fm, qP, Fv'/Fm' and chl content of tomato pretreated with ALA were increased, and the Ci, LCP and CCP were decreased obviously. These results indicate that the inhibition of photosynthesis induced by suboptimal stress can be alleviated by ALA spraying.

Experimental studies have shown that clonal plants can reciprocally translocate assimilates and water between interconnected ramets, if grown in heterogeneous environments with complementary resource supplies. Internal exchange of different resources between spatially scattered ramets is a unique trait of clonal plants which can considerably enhance their performance in terms of biomass and clonal offspring production. Cost-benefit analyses have often been used to quantify the effects of clonal integration. The classical version of this analysis, however, is not applicable to the translocation of different resources in two directions, because each ramet can serve as a sink and as a source at the same time. We used steam-girdling to disentangle and to quantify the effects of reciprocal assimilate and water translocation. This method specifically disables assimilate transport, while leaving water integration unaffected. We grew ramet pairs of the clonal herb Potentilla anserina in spatially heterogeneous environments with complementary availabilities of light and water. The stolon connection between ramets was left intact, steam-girdled or severed. Total biomass and clonal offspring production was highest when the stolon connection was left intact, intermediate when it was stem-girdled and lowest when it was severed, confirming our hypothesis that the degree of clonal integration is positively correlated with plant performance. Cost-benefit analyses revealed that ramets benefited significantly from assimilate and water import. Costs of resource export were absent or small. Fully integrated ramets specialized functionally in the uptake of a locally abundant resource. The degree of functional specialization decreased from intact to steam-girdled and severed ramet pairs. Disconnected ramets specialized in the uptake of the locally most limiting resource. Our results provide evidence that interconnected ramets of P. anserina can benefit from bi-directional resource translocation, and that the scale of these benefits is related to the type and degree of physiological integration within clonal fragments.

Raffinose, stachyose, and galactinol are synthesized in intermediary cells (specialized companion cells) of the minor-vein phloem of cucurbits. To better understand the role of these carbohydrates and the regulation of their synthesis and transport, we measured the concentrations of each of the components of the raffinose oligosaccharide synthetic pathway in mesophyll and sieve element-intermediary cell complexes (SE-ICCs) in the leaves of melon (Cucumis melo L. cv. Hale's Best Jumbo). These concentrations are consistent with a polymer-trapping mechanism for phloem loading, with sucrose diffusing from mesophyll into intermediary cells and being made into raffinose and stachyose, which are too large to diffuse back to the mesophyll. To determine carbohydrate concentrations, we developed a method involving microdissected tissues. Blind endings of areoles, and mesophyll surrounding these veins, were separately removed from lyophilized leaf tissue. Carbohydrates were quantitated by high-performance liquid chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. A small amount of mesophyll remained attached to the blind endings; the carbohydrate contribution of these cells to the vein sample was eliminated by subtraction, based on the amount of chlorophyll. Volumes of cells and subcellular compartments were calculated by morphometric analysis and were used to calculate carbohydrate concentrations. Assuming no subcellular compartmentation, the additive concentration of sugars in the SE-ICCs of minor veins is about 600 mM. Stachyose and raffinose concentrations are about 330 mM and 70 mM, respectively, in SE-ICCs; concentrations of these sugars are much lower in mesophyll (0.2 and 0.1 mM). This is consistent with the view that stachyose and raffinose are unable to pass through the plasmodesmata between intermediary cells and bundle-sheath cells. Sucrose levels appear to be higher in the SE-ICC (about 130 mM) than in the mesophyll (about 10 mM), but if compartmentation is taken into account the gradient for sucrose is probably downhill from mesophyll to intermediary cells. Flux through plasmodesmata between the bundle sheath and intermediary cells was calculated and was found to be within the range of values of flux through plasmodesmata reported in the literature.