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The Optimal Requirement of Essential Amino Acids And Its Efficacy in the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) Maintenance Medium
Author(s) -
Xiong Xiaoyan,
Lu Nancy C.,
McProud Lucy
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a330-b
Subject(s) - caenorhabditis elegans , population , biology , amino acid , chemistry , zoology , biochemistry , medicine , gene , environmental health
C. elegans Maintenance Medium (C‐CeMM) has been currently used to cultivate the free‐living nematodes C. elegans . In the C‐CeMM, 10 amino acids were found to be nutritional essential (EAA). The optimal requirements of 7 EAA have been determined prior. The objectives of the present study were to determine the optimal requirements of the remaining 3 EAA: His, Lys and Thr. Furthermore, the efficacy of the optimal EAA levels of CeMM (O‐CeMM), the C‐CeMM, as well as the egg CeMM (E‐CeMM) based on the EAA ratio in hens egg, were studied. The optimal requirements (mg/ml) of His, Lys and Thr were determined to be 2.26 (8x C‐CeMM), 1.03(1x C‐CeMM), and 0.717 (1x C‐CeMM), respectively. It was found that O‐CeMM supported a significantly higher (170%) population growth (PG; # of nematodes/ml) when compared to the C‐CeMM ( p =0.001) and E‐CeMM ( p =0.008). For both O‐CeMM and C‐CeMM, the AA efficiency ratio (AAER; grams of dry wt. gain/grams of AA) were determined to be 0.18, which was significantly higher than 0.15 that was determined in E‐CeMM ( p =0.002). Although O‐CeMM supported a significantly higher PG, a higher level of His and consequently higher total AA were used in O‐CeMM than in C‐CeMM. Therefore, based on findings on AAER, it was concluded that both the O‐CeMM and C‐CeMM were equally efficient for the cultivation of C. elegans . (Supported by Circle of Friends Research Award & Dep. of Nutrition & Food Science, San Jose State Univ., CA)