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l-Glutamate nutrition and metabolism in swine

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Abstract

l-Glutamate (Glu) has traditionally not been considered as a nutrient needed in diets for humans and other animals (including swine) due to the unsubstantiated assumption that animals can synthesize sufficient amounts of Glu to meet their needs. The lack of knowledge about Glu nutrition has contributed to suboptimal efficiency of global livestock production. Over the past 25 years, there has been growing interest in Glu metabolism in the pig, which is an agriculturally important species and also a useful model for studying human biology. Because of analytical advances in its analysis, Glu is now known to be a highly abundant free amino acid in milk and intracellular fluid, a major constituent of food and tissue proteins, and a key regulator of gene expression, cell signaling, and anti-oxidative reactions. Emerging evidence shows that dietary supplementation with 2% Glu maintains gut health and prevents intestinal dysfunction in weanling piglets, while enhancing their growth performance and survival. In addition, the inclusion of 2% Glu is required for dietary arginine to maximize the growth performance and feed efficiency in growing pigs, whereas dietary supplementation with 2% Glu reduces the loss of skeletal muscle mass in endotoxin-challenged pigs. Furthermore, supplementing 2% Glu to a corn- and soybean-meal-based diet promotes milk production by lactating sows. Thus, an adequate amount of dietary Glu as a quantitatively major nutrient is necessary to support maximum growth, development, and production performance of swine. These results also have important implications for improving the nutrition and health of humans and other animals.

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Abbreviations

AA:

Amino acid

BW:

Body weight

CP:

Crude protein

GDH:

Glutamate dehydrogenase

Gln:

l-Glutamine

Glu:

L-Glutamate

α-KG:

α-Ketoglutarate

mTOR:

Mechanistic target of rapamycin

NRC:

National Research Council

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by Grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFD0501210), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2016CFA070), Hubei Provincial Technology and Innovation Program (2016ABA121), the Program of National Agricultural Research Outstanding Talents of China (2015), Hubei Hundred Talent program, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants (2014-67015-21770 and 2015-67015-23276) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (H-8200).

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  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Animal Nutrition and Feed Safety, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, 430023, China

    Yongqing Hou & Guoyao Wu

  2. Department of Animal Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Guoyao Wu

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  1. Yongqing Hou
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Hou, Y., Wu, G. l-Glutamate nutrition and metabolism in swine. Amino Acids 50, 1497–1510 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-018-2634-3

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