Synthesis of the osmoprotectant glycine betaine from the exogenously provided precursor choline or glycine betaine aldehyde confers considerable osmotic stress tolerance to Bacillus subtilis in high-osmolarity media. Using an Escherichia coli mutant (betBA) defective in the glycine betaine synthesis enzymes, we cloned by functional complementation the genes that are required for the synthesis o...

AIMS Recent metabolomics and animal model studies show trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), an intestinal microbiota-dependent metabolite formed from dietary trimethylamine-containing nutrients such as phosphatidylcholine (PC), choline, and carnitine, is linked to coronary artery disease pathogenesis. Our aim was to examine the prognostic value of systemic choline and betaine levels in stable cardiac...

The regulation of glycine betaine accumulation by Staphylococcus aureus was investigated. The accumulation of glycine betaine was regulated by the osmotic pressure of the medium and the low affinity transport system played the major role in this regulation. Mutants were isolated that lack the low affinity, osmotically activated glycine betaine/proline transport system. Such mutants accumulated ...

Recently, choline has been associated with neurodevelopment, cognitive function and neural tube defect incidence. However, data on usual intakes are limited, and estimates of dietary intakes of choline and its metabolite betaine, are not available for New Zealanders. The objective of the present study was to determine usual intake and food sources of choline and betaine in a group of New Zealan...

Urea in renal medullas is sufficiently high to perturb macromolecules, yet the cells survive and function. The counteracting osmolytes hypothesis holds that methylamines, such as glycine betaine (betaine) and glycerophosphocholine (GPC) in renal medullas, stabilize macromolecules and oppose the effects of urea. Although betaine counteracts effects of urea on macromolecules in vitro and protects...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most important causes of human mortality in the world. Higher intakes of choline and betaine have been shown to be associated with lower plasma homocysteine levels (the putative CVD risk factor). This study aimed to review the evidence on the association between dietary intakes of choline and betaine and traditional/novel CVD risk factors. METH...

Accumulation of compatible solutes is a strategy widely employed by bacteria to achieve cellular protection against high osmolarity. These compounds are also used in some microorganisms as thermostress protectants. We found that Bacillus subtilis uses the compatible solute glycine betaine as an effective cold stress protectant. Glycine betaine strongly stimulated growth at 15°C and permitted ce...

Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive food-borne pathogen that is notably resistant to osmotic stress and can grow at refrigerator temperatures. These two characteristics make it an insidious threat to public health. Like several other organisms, L. monocytogenes accumulates glycine betaine, a ubiquitous and effective osmolyte, intracellularly when grown under osmotic stress. However, it al...

BACKGROUND Betaine (trimethylglycine) is found in several tissues in humans. It is involved in homocysteine metabolism as an alternative methyl donor and is used in the treatment of homocystinuria in humans. In pigs, betaine decreases the amount of adipose tissue. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to examine the effect of betaine supplementation on body weight, body composition, plasma homoc...

Betaine is donor of methyl groups and can partially replace methionine in diets for this purpose. The objective of this study was to evaluate three sources of betaine in partial substitution of methionine supplement in broiler diets. The Cobb-500 broiler chickens were allocated in a completely randomized experimental design with 5 treatments and 7 replicates of 49 birds each. The positive contr...