In-Depth Study of Feed Internal Molecular Structure and Nutrient Make-up within Cellular and Sub-cellular Dimensions Using Advanced Synchrotron Radiation Based Bioanalytical Techniques

了解动物复杂的饲料成分、分子结构以及生物成分与养分利用的相互作用之间的关系，对于经济和可持续的动物生产具有重要意义。饲料的利用率和利用率不仅与饲料的总化学成分密切相关，而且与饲料的内在分子结构和营养成分密切相关，与饲料的生物组成基质密切相关。遗憾的是，传统的湿法化学分析可以确定总的化学成分，但由于化学分析过程中的破坏，无法检测到饲料的内在分子结构和生物成分基质。近年来，先进的同步辐射红外光谱分析技术(SR-IMS)作为一种无损分析技术得到了发展。这项技术利用了同步加速器光的极端亮度(比太阳光亮几百万倍)，能够在细胞和亚细胞维度内产生空间局部化和超结构的化学信息。这项前沿技术可以同时提供四种信息：组织成分、组织结构、组织化学和组织环境。然而，这项技术主要用于医学研究，在饲料科学和动物营养研究中极为罕见。同步加速器X射线能谱(SR-X)是另一项尖端技术。这项技术可以提供有关矿物元素的空间分布、氧化状态和化学形态的组织化学信息，对于揭示矿物元素的化学、生物有效性和毒性具有不可估量的价值。目前尚不清楚这些技术是否可以用于区分和分类饲料的固有结构和饲料热处理方法引起的分子结构变化。目前尚不清楚是否有可能通过应用与饲料分子光谱特性有关的化学和功能特性知识来开发一种用于饲料质量和养分代谢和利用预测的诊断方法。该计划的目标是利用先进的同步辐射生物分析技术(SR-IMS、SR-X)作为一种新的研究工具来揭示饲料固有的分子结构以及加工引起的与反刍动物系统养分利用和利用率相关的分子结构变化。最终目标是在分子基础上增加关于饲料结构的营养相关性的基本知识。这项研究计划将分三个阶段完成，每个阶段包括几个实验。培训高素质的个人(1名硕士，1名博士)将是这一拟议计划的优先事项之一。预计拟议的计划将使我们对饲料-动物界面有更多的了解，并促进我们关于分子结构和动物营养之间相互关联的基本科学知识。

An understanding of relationships between complex feed constituents, molecular structure and the interaction of biological components and nutrient utilization in animals is important to economical and sustainable animal production. Feed utilization and availability are closely related to, NOT ONLY 1) total feed chemical composition, BUT ALSO, 2) feed intrinsic molecular structures and nutrient make-up, and 3) biological component matrix. Unfortunately, conventional "wet" chemical analysis can determine total chemical composition but fails to detect feed intrinsic molecular structures and biological component matrix due to destruction during the processing for chemical analysis. Recently, advanced synchrotron-radiation based infrared microspectroscopy (SR-IMS) has been developed as a non-destructive analytical technique. This technique, taking advantage of the extreme brightness of synchrotron light (million times brighter than sunlight), is able to generate spatially localized and ultra-structural chemical information within cellular and subcellular dimensions. This cutting-edge technique can provide four kinds of information simultaneously: tissue composition, tissue structure, tissue chemistry, and tissue environment. However, this technique has been found mainly for medical research, extremely rare for feed science and animal nutrition research. Synchrotron x-ray spectroscopy (SR-X) is another cutting-edge technique. This technique can provide tissue chemical information on spatial distribution, oxidation state and chemical forms of mineral elements and is invaluable in unraveling the chemistry, bioavailability and toxicity of mineral elements. It is unknown whether these techniques can be used to discriminate and classify feed inherent structures and molecular structural changes induced by feed thermal processing methods. It is unknown whether it is possible to develop a diagnostic method for feed quality and nutrient metabolism and utilization prediction by applying knowledge of chemical and functional characteristics in relation to feed molecular spectroscopic characteristics. The objective of this proposed program is to use the advanced synchrotron-radiation based bioanalytical techniques (SR-IMS, SR-X) as a novel research tool to reveal feed inherent molecular structure and processing induced molecular structure changes in relation to nutrient utilization and availability in ruminant system. The final goal is to increase basic knowledge of the nutritional relevance of feed structure on a molecular basis. This research program will be completed in three phases and each phase consists of several experiments. Training highly qualified personal (1 MSc,1 PhD) will be one of high priority in this proposed program. It is anticipated that the proposed program will provide with a greater understanding the feed-animal interface and advance our basic scientific knowledge on interactive association between molecular structure and animal nutrition.