Amino Acid Composition and Bioactive Peptides of Cricket Protein Hydrolysate and Its Effect on the Ileal Microbiome in Quail

Abstrak

This study aimed to investigate whether cricket protein hydrolysate (CPH) supplementation modulates the ileal bacterial community in quails, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to characterize changes in bacterial composition and diversity. The research method is divided into two stages. The crickets that had been turned into flour were extracted using 96% ethanol at a ratio of 1:10 (w/v) for 5 days. The cricket flour was hydrolyzed using papain enzyme at a concentration of 1% (w/w under controlled conditions (pH 7, 50 °C) for 6 h. The variables measured were the degree of hydrolysis, amino acids, and peptide analysis. Stage 2 involved application to 200 female quails, five weeks old. The quails were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments with 5 replicates per treatment and 20 quails per replicate, with each replicate considered an experimental unit. The experimental diets were provided for 6 weeks. The variables measured were the abundance of ileal microbiota, determined by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The results demonstrated that CPH had higher levels of ash, carbohydrates, protein, and amino acids, but lower fatty acid content than untreated cricket protein. The degree of hydrolysis of CPH was 26.5%, indicating the extent of protein hydrolysis achieved under the applied hydrolysis conditions. The peptides from cricket protein hydrolysate were dominated by dipeptides, particularly Valyl-lysine, Arginyl-phenylalanine, and L-alanyl-L-tryptophan. Microbiome analysis shows that bacterial diversity in the control feed treatment is higher than in the CPH-treated group. The CPH treatment exhibited a more homogeneous bacterial community and was predominantly enriched with beneficial bacteria, including Lactobacillus aviarus, Bacillus thermolactis, and Clostridium sp. The abundance of basal feed families is dominated by famili Enterococcaceae (58%), followed by Lactobacillaceae (25%), while CPH is dominated by famili Lactobacillaceae (44%) and Enterococcaceae (8%). It can be concluded that cricket flour resulting from hydrolyzed protein has the potential to be used as a feed additive that can act as an antimicrobial and improve the microbiota in the digestive tract of quails.

Kata kunci

• antimicrobial
• crickets
• protein hydrolysis
• lactic acid bacteria
• gastrointestinal tract