ArticleDie Naturwissenschaften2010
Microbial degradation of usnic acid in the reindeer rumen.
Article in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of Plant Secondary Metabolites on intake, Detoxification Costs, and Microbial Communities in Deer.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Specialized Feeding Behavior of an Endangered Primate Enhances Forest Health in China.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Advances in Research on Bioactivity, Toxicity, Metabolism, and Pharmacokinetics of Usnic Acid In Vitro and In Vivo.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Effect of 6-Methoxybenzoxazolinone on the Cecal Microbiota of Adult Male Brandt's Vole.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- The Comparative Analysis of the Ruminal Bacterial Population in Reindeer (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Signatures of landscape and captivity in the gut microbiota of Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons).Animal microbiome · 2021Article
- Faecal biomarkers can distinguish specific mammalian species in modern and past environments.PloS one · 2019Article
- Metagenomic sequencing provides insights into microbial detoxification in the guts of small mammalian herbivores (Neotoma spp.).FEMS microbiology ecology · 2018Article
- Modeling time-series data from microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2017Article
- Effect of Dietary Oxalate on the Gut Microbiota of the Mammalian Herbivore Neotoma albigula.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2016Article
- Article
- New Insights into the Microbiota of the Svalbard Reindeer Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus.Frontiers in microbiology · 2016Article
- Dietary supplementation of usnic acid, an antimicrobial compound in lichens, does not affect rumen bacterial diversity or density in reindeer.Current microbiology · 2014Article
- The gastrointestinal tract of the white-throated Woodrat (Neotoma albigula) harbors distinct consortia of oxalate-degrading bacteria.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2014Article
- Symbiosis as a general principle in eukaryotic evolution.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2014Review
- Comparative digestive physiology.Comprehensive Physiology · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) eat and utilize lichens as an important source of energy and nutrients in winter. Lichens synthesize and accumulate a wide variety of phenolic secondary compounds, such as usnic acid, as a defense against herbivores and to protect against damage by UV-light in solar radiation. We have examined where and to what extent these phenolic compounds are degraded in the digestive tract of the reindeer, with particular focus on usnic acid. Three male reindeer were given ad libitum access to a control diet containing no usnic acid for three weeks and then fed lichens ad libitum (primarily Cladonia stellaris) containing 9.1 mg/g DM usnic acid for 4 weeks. Usnic acid intake in reindeer on the lichen diet was 91-117 mg/kg BM/day. In spite of this, no trace of usnic acid or conjugates of usnic acid was found either in fresh rumen fluid, urine, or feces. This suggests that usnic acid is rapidly degraded by rumen microbes, and that it consequently is not absorbed by the animal. This apparent ability to detoxify lichen phenolic compounds may gain increased importance with future enhanced UV-B radiation expected to cause increased protective usnic acid/phenol production in lichens.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.