Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogenic bacterium that can grow at low temperatures and elevated osmolarity. The organism survives these stresses by the intracellular accumulation of osmolytes: low-molecular-weight organic compounds which exert a counterbalancing force. The primary osmolyte in L. monocytogenes is glycine betaine, which is accumulated from the environment via two transport system...

Betaine serves as a methyl donor in a reaction converting homocysteine to methionine, catalysed by the enzyme betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase. It has been used for years to lower the concentration of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) in patients with homocystinuria, and has recently been shown to reduce fasting and in particular post-methionine load (PML) tHcy in healthy subjects. Betaine...

Growing and nongrowing cells of Clostridium sporogenes fermented betaine with l-alanine, l-valine, l-leucine, and l-isoleucine as electron donors in a coupled oxidation-reduction reaction (Stickland reaction). For the substrate combinations betaine and l-alanine and betaine and l-valine balance studies were performed; the results were in agreement with the following fermentation equation: 1 R- ...

Among the Rhizobiaceae, Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain USDA110 appears to be extremely salt sensitive, and the presence of glycine betaine cannot restore its growth in medium with an increased osmolarity (E. Boncompagni, M. Osteras, M. C. Poggi, and D. Le Rudulier, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:2072-2077, 1999). In order to improve the salt tolerance of B. japonicum, cells were transformed with...

It was shown that non-penetrating solutes at high concentrations inhibit the respiration of the halotolerant bacterium Ba1. Betaine relieved the inhibition caused by osmotic stress and exhibited in this respect a considerable structural specificity. The rate of oxidation of various substrates was stimulated to different extents. It stimulated the rates of both respiration and growth to a simila...

Aphanothece halophytica is a halotolerant alkaliphilic cyanobacterium which can grow in media of up to 3.0 M NaCl and pH 11. This cyanobacterium can synthesize betaine from glycine by three-step methylation using S-adenosylmethionine as a methyl donor. To unveil the mechanism of betaine uptake and efflux in this alkaliphile, we isolated and characterized a betaine transporter. A gene encoding a...

In Exp. 1, young pigs were fed a basal diet containing .17% methionine (Met) (.14% digestible Met), and .48% cystine (.38% digestible cystine) for 14 d (34 to 48 d of age). Treatment additions were .25% DL-Met, .34% betaine, .30% choline, or .25% DL-Met and .34% betaine. Methionine, but not betaine or choline supplementation, increased (P < .05) weight gain and feed efficiency. Hepatic betaine-...

Dietary betaine may reduce carcass fat in growing pigs. We explored the effects of betaine on short-term growth and in vivo and in vitro fatty acid oxidation. Pigs were housed in metabolism crates and fed diets containing either 0% (control), 0.125% or 0.5% betaine at 80% of ad libitum energy intake. Fatty acid oxidation was measured during intravenous infusions of 1-(13)C-palmitate and in hepa...

In plants, betaine is synthesized upon abiotic stress via choline oxidation, in which choline monooxygenase (CMO) is a key enzyme. Although it had been thought that betaine synthesis is well regulated to protect abiotic stress, it is shown here that an exogenous supply of precursors such as choline, serine, and glycine in the betaine-accumulating plant Amaranthus tricolor further enhances the a...

These studies evaluated the effects of betaine, provided either as feed-grade betaine or as concentrated separator by-product (CSB; desugared beet molasses), on performance and carcass characteristics of finishing cattle. In Exp. 1, 175 steers (410 kg initial BW) were fed a finishing diet based on steam-flaked and dry-rolled corn, and treatments included 10.5 and 21 g/d feed-grade betaine and 2...