Inferring the Skeletal Muscle Developmental Changes of Grazing and Barn-Fed Goats from Gene Expression Data.

Thirty-six Xiangdong black goats were used to investigate age-related mRNA and protein expression levels of some genes related to skeletal muscle structural proteins, MRFs and MEF2 family, and skeletal muscle fiber type and composition during skeletal muscle growth under grazing (G) and barn-fed (BF) feeding systems. Goats were slaughtered at six time points selected to reflect developmental changes of skeletal muscle during nonrumination (days 0, 7, and 14), transition (day 42), and rumination phases (days 56 and 70). It was observed that the number of type IIx in the longissimus dorsi was increased quickly while numbers of type IIa and IIb decreased slightly, indicating that these genes were coordinated during the rapid growth and development stages of skeletal muscle.

Effects of three methane mitigation agents on parameters of kinetics of total and hydrogen gas production, ruminal fermentation and hydrogen balance using in vitro technique.

Methane (CH4 ) can be mitigated through directly inhibiting methanogen activity and starving methanogens by hydrogen (H2 ) sink. Three types of mechanism (i.e.

[Accuracy of predicting in vitro ruminal methane production in goats using volatile fatty acids stoichiometric models].

This study was conducted to investigate the accuracy of predicting in vitro ruminal methane (CH4) production using volatile fatty acids (VFA) stoichiometric models [CH4 = 0.5Ace-0.25Pro + 0.

Effect of tea catechins on regulation of antioxidant enzyme expression in H2O2-induced skeletal muscle cells of goat in vitro.

Skeletal muscle cells (SMCs) of goats were stress induced with 1 mM H(2)O(2) in the absence or presence of 0.5, 5, and 50 μg/mL tea catechins (TCs) incubation. Cells were harvested at 48 h postincubation with TCs to investigate the effects of TCs on cell proliferation, cell membrane integrity, antioxidant enzyme activities, and antioxidant enzyme genes and protein expression levels.

Effects of rice straw particle size on digesta particle size distribution, nitrogen metabolism, blood biochemical parameters, microbial amino acid composition and intestinal amino acid digestibility in goats.

Effects of rice straw particle size and physically effective neutral detergent fiber (peNDF) on particle size distribution of different digestive tract, nitrogen (N) metabolism, blood biochemical parameters, microbial amino acid (AA) composition and intestinal AA digestibility in goats were investigated. A 4 × 4 Latin square design was employed using four mature Liuyang black goats fitted with permanent ruminal, duodenal, and terminal ileal fistulae. During each of the four periods, goats were offered one of four diets that were similar in chemical composition, but varied in particle sizes and peNDF through alteration of the theoretical cut length of rice straw (10, 20, 40 and 80 mm, respectively).

Determination of endogenous faecal phosphorus loss in goats.

Four black Liuyang wether goats were fed with corn stover and concentrate formulated to contain four levels of dietary phosphorus (P), including 0.129, 0.140, 0.