In barley, glycine betaine is a metabolic end product accumulated by wilted leaves; betaine accumulation involves acceleration of de novo synthesis from serine, via ethanolamine, N-methylethanolamines, choline, and betaine aldehyde (Hanson, Scott 1980 Plant Physiol 66: 342-348). Because in animals and microorganisms the N-methylation of ethanolamine involves phosphatide intermediates, and becau...

objective(s): the aim of the present study was to evaluate antioxidant and methyl donor effects of betaine in cerebellum following levodopa and benserazide administration in rats. materials and methods: sprague-dawley male rats were treated with levodopa (ld), betaine (bet), levodopa plus betaine (ld/bet), levodopa plus benserazide (ld/ben), levodopa plus betaine-benserazide (ld/bet-ben), and t...

The experiment was designed and conducted to evaluate the effect of methionine, betaine and choline in the broiler chicks given low methionine starter ration. Day old broiler chicks (n=250), were randomly divided into five treatment groups (n=5) with five replicates of ten chicks. A low methionine (LM) starter ration was formulated and the treatment groups were (A) LM supplemented with methioni...

A halotolerant cyanobacterium Aphanothece halophytica thrives in extreme salinity with accumulation of a potent osmoprotectant glycine betaine. Recently, this cyanobacterium was shown to accumulate sunscreen molecule mycosporine-2-glycine significantly at high salinity. In this study, we investigated effects of nitrate and amino acid provision on the accumulation of glycine betaine and mycospor...

Glycine betaine is mostly known as an osmoprotectant. It is involved in the osmotic adaptation of eukaryotic and bacterial cells, and accumulates up to 1 M inside cells subjected to an osmotic upshock. Since, like other osmolytes, it can act as a protein stabilizer, its thermoprotectant properties were investigated. In vitro, like protein chaperones such as DnaK, glycine betaine and choline pro...

Compatible solutes such as glycine betaine and proline betaine are accumulated to exceedingly high intracellular levels by many organisms in response to high osmolarity to offset the loss of cell water. They are excluded from the immediate hydration shell of proteins and thereby stabilize their native structure. Despite their exclusion from protein surfaces, the periplasmic ligand-binding prote...

We undertook a morphometric and proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) study to test the hypothesis that 1% dietary betaine supplementation would ameliorate renal disease in the heterozygous Han:SPRD-cy rat, a model of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and progressive chronic renal failure. After 8 wk of pair feeding, betaine had no effect on renal cystic change, renal interstitial fibrosis...

Abnormalities in folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism have been reported in many children with autism. Because inadequate choline and betaine can negatively affect folate metabolism and in turn downstream methylation and antioxidant capacity, we sought to determine whether dietary intake of choline and betaine in children with autism was adequate to meet nutritional needs based on national re...

Many studies suggest that trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a gut-flora-dependent metabolite of choline, contributes to the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but little is known for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We examined the association of circulating TMAO, choline and betaine with the presence and severity of NAFLD in Chinese adults. We performed a hospital-based case-control study...

An in vivo experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary betaine supplementation (Betafin) as a replacement for methionine on broiler performance and carcass characteristics. In a completely randomized design (CRD) with five treatments of betaine levels (at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% in replacement for methionine) and five replicates of 10 birds/replicate, two hundred fifty-day-old R...