Journal Article

Assessment of the dietary amino acid profiles and the relative biomarkers for amino acid balance in the low-protein diets for broiler chickens

Liu, Yongfa, Wang, Mi, Wang, Yuan, Wang, Xinzhi, Zhang, Xiaodan, Gao, Mingkun, Guo, Yuming, Wang, Bin

2024

Overview

Background Research on low-protein-level diets has indicated that even though the profiles of essential amino acids (EAAs) follow the recommendation for a normal-protein-level diet, broilers fed low-protein diets failed to achieve productive performance compared to those fed normal diets. Therefore, it is imperative to reassess the optimum profile of EAAs in low-protein diets and establish a new ideal pattern for amino acid balance. Furthermore, identifying novel sensitive biomarkers for assessing amino acid balance will greatly facilitate the development of amino acid nutrition and application technology. In this study, 12 dietary treatments [Con(+), Con(-), L&A(-), L&A(+), M&C(-), M&C(+), BCAA (-), BCAA(+), Thr(-), Thr(+), Trp(-) and Trp(+)] were established by combining different EAAs including lysine and arginine, methionine and cysteine, branched-chain amino acid (BCAA), threonine, and tryptophan to observe the growth and development of the broiler chickens fed with low-protein-level diets. Based on the biochemical parameters and untargeted metabolomic analysis of animals subjected to different treatments, biomarkers associated with optimal and suboptimal amino acid balance were identified. Results Growth performance, carcass characteristics, hepatic enzyme activity, serum biochemical parameters, and breast muscle mRNA expression differed significantly between male and female broilers under different dietary amino acid patterns. Male broilers exhibited higher sensitivity to the adjustment of amino acid patterns than female broilers. For the low-protein diet, the dietary concentrations of lysine, arginine, and tryptophan, but not of methionine, cystine, or threonine, needed to be increased. Therefore, further research on individual BCAA is required. For untargeted metabolomic analysis, Con(+) was selected as a normal diet (NP) while Con(-) represented a low-protein diet (LP). L&A(+) denotes a low-protein amino acid balanced diet (LPAB) and Thr(+) represents a low-protein amino acid imbalance diet (LPAI). The metabolites oxypurinol, pantothenic acid, and D-octopine in birds were significantly influenced by different dietary amino acid patterns. Conclusion Adjusting the amino acid profile of low-protein diets is required to achieve normal growth performance in broiler chickens fed normal-protein diets. Oxypurinol, pantothenic acid, and D-octopine have been identified as potentially sensitive biomarkers for assessing amino acid balance.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Springer Nature B.V,State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feeding,College of Animal Science and Technology,China Agricultural University,Beijing 100193,China%Shenyang Boeing Feed Company,Shenyang 110141,China,BMC
• Subject: Agriculture / Amino acid balance / amino acid composition / Amino acids / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Animal Physiology / Animals / application technology / arginine / Biomarkers / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biotechnology / blood serum / Breast muscle / Chain branching / Chickens / cysteine / cystine / Diet / Electrolytes / Enzymatic activity / Enzyme activity / Essential amino acid / Females / Food Science / Gene expression / growth performance / Life Sciences / Low protein diet / Lysine / Males / Metabolism / Metabolites / Metabolomics / Methionine / Nitrogen / Nutrient deficiency / Octopine / Optimization / Pantothenic acid / Parameter identification / Parameter sensitivity / Poultry / Proteins / Technology assessment / Threonine / Tryptophan / Uric acid