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Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen

Rumen studies have focused almost exclusively on livestock species under strictly regimented diets. This means that the ruminal condition of free-living and free-feeding wildlife remains practically unstudied. Urea nitrogen salvaging, a process by which urea is passed into the rumen, to both provide...

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Autores principales: Zhong, Chongliang, Griffin, Laura L., Heussaff, Orla, O’Dea, Ruairi, Whelan, Conor, Stewart, Gavin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8878845/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35202326
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9020073
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author Zhong, Chongliang
Griffin, Laura L.
Heussaff, Orla
O’Dea, Ruairi
Whelan, Conor
Stewart, Gavin
author_facet Zhong, Chongliang
Griffin, Laura L.
Heussaff, Orla
O’Dea, Ruairi
Whelan, Conor
Stewart, Gavin
author_sort Zhong, Chongliang
collection PubMed
description Rumen studies have focused almost exclusively on livestock species under strictly regimented diets. This means that the ruminal condition of free-living and free-feeding wildlife remains practically unstudied. Urea nitrogen salvaging, a process by which urea is passed into the rumen, to both provide a valuable source of nitrogen for bacterial growth and to buffer the potentially harmful acidic effects of bacterial short chain fatty acids, has remained unexplored in wild ruminants, such as deer. UT-B2 transporters are the key proteins reported to facilitate the transepithelial ruminal urea transport. In this study, we investigate the expression, abundance and localisation of urea transporters in the rumen of a semi-wild fallow deer (Dama dama) population. Physical measurements confirmed that males had larger rumen than females, while adults had longer papillae than juveniles. Initial RT-PCR experiments confirmed the expression of UT-B2, while immunolocalisation studies revealed that strong UT-B staining was present in the stratum basale of deer rumen. Western blotting analysis demonstrated that a 50 kDa UT-B2 protein was significantly more abundant in adult females compared to adult males. This study confirms the presence of UT-B2 urea transporters in deer rumen and suggests that sex-related differences occur, bringing new insight into our understanding of rumen physiology.
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spelling pubmed-88788452022-02-26 Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen Zhong, Chongliang Griffin, Laura L. Heussaff, Orla O’Dea, Ruairi Whelan, Conor Stewart, Gavin Vet Sci Article Rumen studies have focused almost exclusively on livestock species under strictly regimented diets. This means that the ruminal condition of free-living and free-feeding wildlife remains practically unstudied. Urea nitrogen salvaging, a process by which urea is passed into the rumen, to both provide a valuable source of nitrogen for bacterial growth and to buffer the potentially harmful acidic effects of bacterial short chain fatty acids, has remained unexplored in wild ruminants, such as deer. UT-B2 transporters are the key proteins reported to facilitate the transepithelial ruminal urea transport. In this study, we investigate the expression, abundance and localisation of urea transporters in the rumen of a semi-wild fallow deer (Dama dama) population. Physical measurements confirmed that males had larger rumen than females, while adults had longer papillae than juveniles. Initial RT-PCR experiments confirmed the expression of UT-B2, while immunolocalisation studies revealed that strong UT-B staining was present in the stratum basale of deer rumen. Western blotting analysis demonstrated that a 50 kDa UT-B2 protein was significantly more abundant in adult females compared to adult males. This study confirms the presence of UT-B2 urea transporters in deer rumen and suggests that sex-related differences occur, bringing new insight into our understanding of rumen physiology. MDPI 2022-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8878845/ /pubmed/35202326 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9020073 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zhong, Chongliang
Griffin, Laura L.
Heussaff, Orla
O’Dea, Ruairi
Whelan, Conor
Stewart, Gavin
Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title_full Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title_fullStr Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title_full_unstemmed Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title_short Sex-Related Differences in UT-B Urea Transporter Abundance in Fallow Deer Rumen
title_sort sex-related differences in ut-b urea transporter abundance in fallow deer rumen
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8878845/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35202326
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9020073
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