Student Competition: Metabolism and Nutrition: Amino Acids

To determine the effect of dietary methionine supplementation on intestinal amino acid/peptide/monocarboxylic acid transporter gene expression, a total of 242 male Cobb-500 broilers were fed from day of hatch to 35 d of age using a basal diet deficient in sulfur amino acids (control), or the control diet supplemented with dl-methionine (dl-Met), l-methionine (l-Met) or methionine analog dl-2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid (dl-HMTBA) to meet requirements . Duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were collected at d 0 (d0), d3, d5, d10, d21, d26 and d35 (n = 5) . The mRNA abundance of 13 transporter genes ATB0,+, b0,+AT, B0AT, LAT1, MCT1, NHE3, PepT1, rBAT, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, y+LAT1 and y+LAT2 was assayed by real time PCR and expression data were calculated using qbase+ . The statistical model included the main effects of treatment, age, small intestinal segment and their interactions . Data were analyzed by ANOVA using JMP 10 .0 . Means were separated using Tukey’s test . When compared among different segments, ATB0,+, b0,+AT, B0AT, LAT1, rBAT, SAT1, SAT3, y+LAT1 and y+LAT2 had their highest expression in ileum, while SAT2, MCT1, NHE3 and PepT1 had the highest expression in duodenum . There was an age dependent effect in expression of the transporters . When analyzed within each segment, there was no significant difference between different levels or sources of methionine . In conclusion, dietary supplemental methionine sources altered minimally the expression of intestinal nutrient transporter genes in broiler chickens .