Isolation and identification of sinapine-degrading bacteria from the intestinal tract of laying hens

This study was aimed to isolate sinapine-degrading bacteria from the intestinal tract of laying hens and to identify the predominant bacteria. Thirty-week old healthy laying hens were killed, and the chyme in the digestive tract was inoculated into modified Czapek medium containing sinapin and cultivated at 37 °C for 10 days. The optical density (OD) values of the bacterial solutions at different cultivating times were detected by a spectrophotometric method. The predominant strains were identified by 16S rRNA gene analysis. We extracted the extracellular products of the predominant strains to determine the total protein using the Coomassie brilliant blue method, and to determine the activities of some extracellular enzymes using the agar plate diffusion method. Nine strains were isolated from the lower intestinal tract of laying hens. Among the 9 strains, 5 were from the ileum, 2 were from the ceca and 2 were from the jejunum. We could not isolate any strains from the upper intestinal tract, such as the stomach and duodenum. Eight of those 9 isolated strains were gram negative and one was gram positive. Strains YD-1 and YD-2 were better than other strains in their abilities to degrade sinapine. Strains YD-1 and YD-2 were identified as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp., respectively, by the 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The total protein level of the extracellular products was 1.213 g/L for YD-1 and 1.990 g/L for YD-2. Both extracellular products of YD-1 and YD-2 had the activities of protease, amylase and urease. This study confirmed that the primary site of sinapine degradation is in the lower intestinal tract of laying hens. The sinapine-degrading strains are mainly gram negative. Strains YD-1 and YD-2 are predominant in degrading sinapine and they belong to E. coli and Klebsiella spp., respectively. Both extracellular products of YD-1 and YD-2 contain protease, amylase and urease. Strain YD-2 is better than strain YD-1 in its ability to degrade sinapine.