AUTHOR=Du Junhua , Gan Mailin , Xie Zhongwei , Zhou Chengpeng , Jing Yunhong , Li Menglin , Liu Chengming , Wang Meng , Dai Haodong , Huang Zhiyang , Chen Lei , Zhao Ye , Niu Lili , Wang Yan , Zhang Shunhua , Guo Zongyi , Shen Linyuan , Zhu Li TITLE=Effects of dietary L-Citrulline supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, and fecal microbial composition in finishing pigs JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1209389 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1209389 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=

Gut microbiota play an important role in the gut ecology and development of pigs, which is always regulated by nutrients. This study investigated the effect of L-Citrulline on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and its potential regulatory mechanism. The results showed that 1% dietary L-Citrulline supplementation for 52 days significantly increased final weight, liveweight gain, carcass weight, and average backfat and markedly decreased drip loss (p < 0.05) of finishing pigs compared with the control group. Microbial analysis of fecal samples revealed a marked increase in α-diversity and significantly altered composition of gut microbiota in finishing pigs in response to L-Citrulline. In particular, these altered gut microbiota at the phylum and genus level may be mainly involved in the metabolic process of carbohydrate, energy, and amino acid, and exhibited a significant association with final weight, carcass weight, and backfat thickness. Taken together, our data revealed the potential role of L-Citrulline in the modulation of growth performance, carcass characteristics, and the meat quality of finishing pigs, which is most likely associated with gut microbiota.