Total lipids were extracted from 22 species of Malaysian fish and the constituent fatty acids were analysed by gas chromatography. Malaysian fish generally contained high levels of saturated fatty acids (range 36-55% total fatty acids) and contained variable amounts of monounsaturates, chiefly palmitic and stearic acids, but only trace levels of 20:1 and 22:1. Unlike fish caught in colder northern hemisphere waters, Malaysian fish were found to contain arachidonic acid (20:4 omega 6, range 2-12%) in addition to the expected eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 omega 3, range 1-13%) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 omega 3, range 6.6-40.4%).
Stress has been shown to disturb the balance of human intestinal microbiota and subsequently causes mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Our previous study showed that ingesting the probiotic strain, Lactobacillus (L.) plantarum P-8, for 12 weeks could alleviate stress and anxiety of stressed adults. The current study was a follow-up work aiming to investigate the functional role of the gut metagenomes in the observed beneficial effects. The fecal metagenomes of the probiotic (n = 43) and placebo (n = 36) receivers were analyzed in depth. The gut microbiomes of the placebo group at weeks 0 and 12 showed a significantly greater Aitchison distance (P acids, gamma-aminobutyric acid, arachidonic acid, and sphingomyelin). Our results showed a potential link between probiotic-induced gut microbiota modulation and stress/anxiety alleviation in stressed adults, supporting that the gut-brain axis was involved in relieving stress-related symptoms. The beneficial effect relied not only on microbial diversity changes but more importantly gut metagenome modulations at the SGB and functional gene levels.
Salinity is one of the major constraintsin the rice production worldwide. Rice plants have moderate tolerance towardssalinity. Salinitychangescell membrane permeability and fatty acid compositionsby releasing the free fatty acids. Nonetheless, the effect of exogenous fatty acid such as arachidonic acid (AA) on rice grown on saline soil is yetunknown. Theobjective of the current study isto determine the effectofAA onthe morphological traits and freefatty acidsofrice plantgrown under saline conditions.Rice plants grown on saline soil (EC=12 ds/m)were treated with 50 μMAAon day 45 after transplant. Leaves and panicleswere sampledafter two weeks of treatment and analysed for fatty acid profile using GC-MS. Themorphological traits were observedat the maturity stage. Results showed that AA treatment improved the grain fill-in of the saline stress riceand reduced the accumulation of free fatty acids in the cell. The AAtreatment also increased the linoleic acid (18:2), linolenic acid (18:3) in paniclesand, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid(20:3) and nervonic acid (24:1) in leaves. The finding suggests that exogenous AAregulates salinity stress in rice by reducing the accumulation offree fatty acids.
Alteration of the lipid content and fatty acid (FA) composition of foods can result in a healthier product. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of flaxseed oil or sunflower oil in the goat diet on fatty acid composition of muscle and expression of lipogenic genes in the semitendinosus (ST) muscle. Twenty-one entire male Boer kid goats were fed diets containing different levels of linoleic acid (LA) and α-linolenic acid (LNA) for 100 days. Inclusion of flaxseed oil increased (p < 0.05) the α-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) concentration in the ST muscle. The diet high in α-linolenic acid (p < 0.05) decreased the arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6) and conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) c-9 t-11 content in the ST muscle. There was a significant (p < 0.05) upregulation of PPARα and PPARγ gene expression and downregulation of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) gene in the ST muscle for the high α-linolenic acid group compared with the low α-linolenic acid group. The results of the present study show that flaxseed oil as a source of α-linolenic acid can be incorporated into the diets of goats to enrich goat meat with n-3 fatty acids, upregulate the PPARα and PPARγ, and downregulate the SCD gene expression.