Adaptation of the White Fulani cattle to the tropical environment

This review summarizes the available information on the adaptation and the performance of White Fulani cattle in tropical environments. White Fulani cattle is an indigenous breed of cattle widely distributed in the humid tropical regions of Africa and plays significant roles in meat and milk production, as well as draught purposes. Poor management and the harsh environmental conditions in the tropics encumber the optimal productive and reproductive performance of the breed, having about 4.75 years age at first calving, 57% calving rate, 18 months calving interval and 3 to 4 calves are born in a reproductive lifetime. The cattle breed adapts to these climatic patterns via physiological, morphological, behavioral, genetic, and metabolic responses. Different physiological mechanisms and morphological features such as their white coat color, hair coat thickness, and lengthy rump appear to play an important adaptive role. The distinct genetic traits (including the possession of seven genetic variants of HSP 90 gene) of the breed afford them some levels of thermotolerance and high resistivity to some endemic diseases (such as trypanosomiasis, liver fluke, brucellosis and foot and mouth disease) in the tropics constitute inherent characteristics that should be explored in detail using molecular assisted approaches. The productive performance of the breed under different systems is discussed. A better understanding of the adaptive characteristics of White Fulani cattle could provide crucial information on the best management approach/ techniques that should be adopted to improve the performance, productivity, and sustainability of this cattle breed. Therefore, this review aims to compile the various production, reproduction and adaptation traits of the breed and presents vital information underlying their thriving and survivability in tropical environments

Thermodynamics of Mixtures Containing Amines. XV. Liquid–Liquid Equilibria for Benzylamine + CH3(CH2)nCH3 (n = 8, 9, 10, 12, 14)

Coexistence curves for the liquid−liquid equilibria (LLE) of 1-phenylmethanamine (benzylamine) + CH3(CH2)nCH3 (n = 8, 9, 10, 12, 14) have been determined using the critical opalescence method by means of a laser scattering technique. All of the LLE curves show an upper critical solution temperature (UCST), which increases with increasing n. For systems including a given n-alkane, the UCST decreases in the sequence aniline > 2-methylaniline (o-toluidine) > benzylamine > N-methylaniline > pyridine. This means that amine−amine interactions become weaker in the same order. Most of the DISQUAC interaction parameters for the aliphatic/amine (a,n) and aromatic/ amine (b,n) contacts previously determined for solutions with aniline, o-toluidine, or N-methylaniline have been used for the representation of the LLE data. Only the first dispersive interaction parameter of the (a,n) contact has been modified. The coordinates of the critical points are correctly represented by the model

Evaluation of Tamarindus indica as novel feed resource in tropical animal production and management

Unconventional feed resource for livestock production in the tropics has been identified as a way of reducing the challenges of shortage and high – cost of conventional feed resources because of the competition between man and animal. Therefore, nutritional value of Tamarindus indica whole fruit, hulls and seeds was investigated in this study. Determination of proximate components using standard methods was carried out on the samples separately and thereafter subjected to in-vitro digestibility evaluation. Proximate analysis results showed that the concentrations of chemical components in whole fruit, hulls and seeds respectively as determined on dry matter basis in percentage (%) were: moisture (13.39; 12.25; 4.60), ash (7.18; 5.50; 7.15), crude protein (13.75; 9.12; 22.60), crude fibre (15.50; 15.00; 10.00), ether extract (9.25; 7.72; 9.50) and metabolizable energy (4324; 4084; 4633 Kcal/Kg). This indicated that crude protein content were significantly higher (P<0.05) in the seed as compared to the whole fruit and hulls while the Tamarindus fruit hull contained significantly lower (P < 0.05) values components measured. The results of the in-vitro nutrients digestibility showed that crude protein, crude fibre and ash digestibilities respectively were significantly higher (P<0.05) for tamarind seeds (94.96 %, 53.41 %, and 64.69 %) as compared to the whole fruit and hulls which were similar (P>0.05). From the results, it was concluded that the seed of Tamarindus indica is a potential unconventional protein source for livestock production in the tropics and its in-vivo evaluation is hereby recommended prior to its use as a novel feed resource for commercial animal production.Keywords: Tamarindus indica, nutritional evaluation, feed resource, animal production

Constitutive mTORC1 activation by a herpesvirus Akt surrogate stimulates mRNA translation and viral replication

All viruses require cellular ribosomes to translate their mRNAs. Viruses producing methyl-7 (m7) GTP-capped mRNAs, like Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1), stimulate cap-dependent translation by activating mTORC1 to inhibit the translational repressor 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1). Here, we establish that the HSV-1 kinase Us3 masquerades as Akt to activate mTORC1. Remarkably, Us3 displays no sequence homology with the cellular kinase Akt, yet directly phosphorylates tuberous sclerosis complex 2 (TSC2) on the same sites as Akt. TSC2 depletion rescued Us3-deficient virus replication, establishing that Us3 enhances replication by phosphorylating TSC2 to constitutively activate mTORC1, effectively bypassing S6K-mediated feedback inhibition. Moreover, Us3 stimulated Akt substrate phosphorylation in infected cells, including FOXO1 and GSK3. Thus, HSV-1 encodes an Akt surrogate with overlapping substrate specificity to activate mTORC1, stimulating translation and virus replication. This establishes Us3 as a unique viral kinase with promising drug development potential