Dietary intakes of nutritionally nonessential amino acids among homebound older adults

Elevated circulating branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs; isoleucine, leucine, and valine) are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Reducing circulatory BCAAs by dietary restriction was suggested to mitigate these risks in rodent models, but this is a challenging paradigm to deliver in humans. We aimed to design and assess the feasibility of a diet aimed at reducing circulating BCAA concentrations in humans, while maintaining energy balance and overall energy/protein intake. Twelve healthy individuals were assigned to either a 7-day BCAA-restricted diet or a 7-day control diet. Diets were iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric, with only BCAA levels differing between the two. The BCAA-restricted diet significantly reduced circulating BCAA concentrations by ~50% i.e., baseline 437 ± 60 to 217 ± 40 µmol/L (p < 0.005). Individually, both valine (245 ± 33 to 105 ± 23 µmol/L; p < 0.0001), and leucine (130 ± 20 to 75 ± 13 µmol/L; p < 0.05), decreased significantly in response to the BCAA-restricted diet. The BCAA-restricted diet marginally lowered Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) levels: baseline 1.5 ± 0.2 to 1.0 ± 0.1; (p = 0.096). We successfully lowered circulating BCAAs by 50% while maintaining iso-nitrogenous, iso-caloric dietary intakes, and while meeting the recommended daily allowances (RDA) for protein requirements. The present pilot study represents a novel dietary means by which to reduce BCAA, and as such, provides a blueprint for a potential dietary therapeutic in obesity/diabetes.

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The screening and preliminary construction of quality mutant population for cultivar “Nipponbare” in japonica rice (Oryza sativa)

Biologia ◽

10.2478/s11756-012-0106-x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 67 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Da Zhang ◽

Jian Wu ◽

Guan Li ◽

Chun Shi

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Oryza Sativa ◽

Amino Acid ◽

Mutation Frequency ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Essential Amino Acids ◽

Japonica Rice ◽

Near Infrared Reflectance ◽

Mutant Population ◽

Nonessential Amino Acids

AbstractProgenies of Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare induced with 0.4% ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) were screened for quality mutants and the preliminary quality mutant population was constructed in present experiment. A total of 2210 materials were first screened using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) from which 208 quality mutants were obtained for a second screening and then yielded 73 quality mutants including amylase content (AC), gel consistency (GC), gelatinization temperature (GT), protein content (PC), rapid viscosity analysis (RVA) parameters and amino acid contents. The screening yielded 11 PC mutants with a mutation frequency of 4.98‰, followed by 7 rice floury viscosity mutants (3.17‰), 5 AC mutants (2.26‰), 4 chalky mutants, GT and GC mutants (1.81‰), and 2 ASV mutants (0.9‰). The relative contents of 17 kinds of amino acid mutations, including 7 kinds for essential amino acids and 10 kinds for nonessential amino acids were identified. With the variation of 10% as the screening standard, mutants were obtained for lysine and leucine at 0.45‰ and for valine at 4.98‰, but no mutants were found for isoleucine, phenylalanine, threonine. For nonessential amino acids, mutants of glutamic (0.45‰), arginine (3.62‰), alanine (3.17‰), serine (0.45‰), glycine (0.45‰), tyrosine (1.81‰), proline (2.71‰), and histidine (0.45‰) were obtained, but none was found for aspartic, phenylalanine nor threonine. At 100% as the screening standard for methionine and cysteines, the mutation frequency of these two amino acid mutants were 0.9‰ and 4.98‰ respectively. Quality mutants in this preliminary library of rice could play important role in gene function and breeding of rice quality.

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