In vitro gastrointestinal digestion study of two wheat cultivars and evaluation of xylanase supplementation.

Background: The filamentous fungus Talaromyces versatilis is known to improve the metabolizable energy of wheat-based poultry diets thanks to its ability to produce a pool of CAZymes and particularly endo-β(1,4)-xylanases. In order to appreciate their in vivo mode of action, the supplementation effect of two of its xylanases, XynD and XynB from families GH10 and GH11 respectively, have been evaluated on two different wheat cultivars Caphorn and Isengrain, which were chosen amongst 6 varieties for their difference in non starch polysaccharides content and arabinoxylan composition.

Results: Polysaccharides digestion was followed during 6 h along the digestive tract using the TNO gastrointestinal model-1, to mimic monogastric metabolism. Polysaccharide degradation appeared to occur mainly at the jejunal level and was higher with Isengrain than with Caphorn. For both cultivars, XynD and XynB supplementation increased notably the amount of reducing end sugars into the jejuno-ileal dialysates, which has been confirmed by a valuable increase of the soluble glucose into the jejunal dialysates.

Conclusions: The amounts of arabinose and xylose into the dialysates and ileal deliveries increased consequently mainly for Caphorn, suggesting that XynD and XynB supplementation in wheat-based diet could alleviate the anti-nutritional effects of arabinoxylans by limiting the physical entrapment of starch and could increase the available metabolizable energy.