Laboratory for Bioresources
Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University
RESEARCH
Handout in English Pubication info with SOAR
Our mission: "Increasing animal productivity by rejuvenating internal microorganisms"
There are many kinds of microbes existing anywhere around us, although we cannot see them. Some of them cause diseases and food poisoning and others are indispensable for producing pharmaceuticals, as well as for food production such as yogurt and pickles (known as "fermented food"). In addition, numbers of microbes inhabit the stomach and large intestine of animals including human, which play important roles in their health.
Research focuses involve these functional microbes and even on wide range of creatures as biological resources to pursue their potentiality deeply, and apply their unlimited abilities so as to contribute to establishment the harmonious recycling-based, sustainable society.
Our mission: "Increasing animal productivity by rejuvenating internal microorganisms"
- Object 1 _> Elucidation of the symbiotic relationship between animals and the microbes
- Object 2 _> Construction of a recycling-based, sustainable society thorough the implementation of the further use of residual substances by leveraging functional microbes
There are many kinds of microbes existing anywhere around us, although we cannot see them. Some of them cause diseases and food poisoning and others are indispensable for producing pharmaceuticals, as well as for food production such as yogurt and pickles (known as "fermented food"). In addition, numbers of microbes inhabit the stomach and large intestine of animals including human, which play important roles in their health.
Research focuses involve these functional microbes and even on wide range of creatures as biological resources to pursue their potentiality deeply, and apply their unlimited abilities so as to contribute to establishment the harmonious recycling-based, sustainable society.
TOPIC_1 Feed use of untapped food resources and food byproducts for constructing an energy cycle system
Feed use of untapped, residual substance in food manufacture or food waste is an effective means of completion of resource recycling and has been investigated for the implementation. We are therefore targeting at developing techniques enable to convert materials of food origin suitable to feed which is both palatable and nutritious, by a combination of microbiological and molecular biological elucidation of nutritional absorption systems in the animals.
TOPIC_2 Exploring new function of microbes inhabiting animal digestive tract
It is well known that various and numerous microbes inhabit animal's tract (the rumen and lower gut), and some of which has shown the ability for ill-defined but certain health merits for the host. The goal is to build up such microbial potential for a technique that can be applied in vivo or in an industrial use, starting with revealing the nature of which intestinal microbes depict.
Interpretative summary of recent papers
Biofilm bacterial dynamics and the changes in the inorganic nitrogen density due the presence of freshwater pearl mussel
Kayano Takeuchi, Motoi Takeuchi, Wataru Kakino, and Yutaka Uyeno
mSphere, 00834-21. Journal Website view on EurekAlert!
The freshwater pearl mussel (genus Margaritifera) has shown severe declines while they play important roles in the translocation of nutrients and materials in riverwater ecosystems. We hypothesized that the biofilm bacterial composition and nutrient flow may reflect the differences in the existence of mussels. We analyzed water from 14 rivers from in multiple regions of Japan, including eight rivers, where the two species of freshwater pearl mussels (M. laevis and M. togakushiensis) are predominantly found, to analyze the microbial and nutritional nature of the biofilm artificially formed in the river. Field-produced biofilms, including the bacterial community structure, were examined, using next-generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons followed by analyzing the genomic DNA extracted from the samples, inorganic nitrogen compounds, and chlorophyll-a concentration. Compared to those in the control river without freshwater pearl mussels, biofilms of the existing river contained less inorganic nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate), suggesting the involvement of mussels in regulating the river water nutrient flow. Distinct changes were found in biofilms depending on mussel existence, particularly in biofilms containing fewer photosynthetic bacterial groups such as Betaproteobacteria and Cyanobacteria. Conversely, bacteria belonging to Bacteroidales in Bacteroidetes and Clostridiales in Firmicutes were predominantly found in biofilm samples where the mussels existed. Mussels alleviated strict nitrogen limitation in streams and possibly caused a concomitant change in the bacterial communities, where populations of bacteria groups exchanging inorganic nitrogen were low. We demonstrated the profound influence of freshwater mussel species on ecosystem processes and community dynamics across rivers.
Dietary Supplementation with Fermented Brassica rapa L. Stimulates Defecation Accompanying Change in Colonic Bac-terial Community Structure
Sachi Tanaka,Kana Yamamoto, Chisato Hamajima, Fuka Takahashi, Katsunori Endo, and Yutaka Uyeno
Nutrients, 13:1847. Journal Website
To reveal the modulation effects of fermented B. rapa L. on immune function and intestinal bac-terial community structure, we conducted an intervention study with healthy volunteers followed by a mouse feeding study. The pilot intervention study was conducted for healthy volunteers aged 40?64 years under the hypothesis that the number of subjects exhibiting any change in gut microbiota in response to fermented B. rapa L. consumption may be limited. In total, 20 volunteers consumed 30 g of fermented B. rapa L. per day for 4 weeks. The fecal bacterial community com-position of the volunteers was characterized using terminal-restriction fragment length poly-morphism patterning followed by clustering analysis. To evaluate the detailed changes in the immune responses and the gut bacterial composition, assessed by high-throughput sequencing, we fed healthy mice with freeze-dried, fermented B. rapa L. for 2 weeks. The fecal bacterial community composition of the volunteers before the intervention was divided into three clades. Regardless of the clade, the defecation frequency significantly increased during the intervention weeks compared with that before the intervention. However, this clustering detected a specific increase of Prevotella in one cluster (low to zero Prevotella and high occupation of Clostridium at clusters IV and XIVa) post-ingestion. The cytokine production of spleen cells significantly in-creased due to feeding fermented B. rapa L. to the mice. This supplementary in vivo trial provided comparable results to the volunteer study regarding the effects of ingestion of the material given the compositional change complying with that of dietary fiber, particularly in the increase of genera Prevotella, Lachnospira, and genera in the Ruminococcaceae family, and the increase in daily defecation amount during 2 weeks of administration. We conclude that feeding fermented B. rapa L. may be responsible for the observed modulation in gut microbiota to increase fiber-degrading bacteria and butyrate-producing bacteria which may be relevant to the improvement in bowel function such as defecation frequency.
Fermentative Quality and Animal Acceptability of Ensiled Persimmon Skin with Absorbents for Practical Use in Ruminant Feed
Shimaa Abdelazeem, Ken-ichi Takeda, Kazuhiro Kurosu, and Yutaka Uyeno
Animals, 10:612. Journal Website
Although persimmon skin (PS) has a high nutrition content, it loses much of its nutrient value through effluent, which hampers its use as a feed. To reduce effluent production during ensiling, we tested three kinds of moisture absorbents (kraft pulp, wheat bran, and beet pulp). We evaluated five types of table scale silages: persimmon skin only, persimmon skin plus Lactobacillus buchneri inoculum, and persimmon skin plus L. buchneri plus each absorbent in turn. We observed low effluent and gas loss in absorbent-treated groups, implying a positive contribution of these absorbents to fermentation quality. Further, we performed an in vitro culture test of PS silage supplemented with an absorbent mixture. The proportion of methane to total gas decreased in the ensiled group compared with that in the other groups. Finally, we conducted a preliminary feeding experiment on dry ewes to assess the palatability of PS with a partial substitution of up to 20% dry matter, and found no adverse effect on feed intake and acceptability. Our results highlight the potential use of PS as a part of ruminant feed.
