Abstract
ATTENTION continues to be directed to the difficulty of accounting for the manner in which sheep on pastures secure the cystine necessary for wool growth. In a recent communication to NATURE,1 Rimington and Bekker conclude that the amount of cystine consumed in the grass fails to account for the amount present in the fleece and formulate an alternative hypothesis that “The intestinal flora and fauna.... are almost certainly able to synthesise cystine from inorganic sulphur and it is conceivable that the population of the sheep's intestine, by continual increase, is transforming sulphates into cystine, built into their own protoplasm, with a high grade of officiency. As bacteria die, their cell protoplasm autolyses, again setting free the sulphur, now in the form of cystine, which is readily available to the sheep.”
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References
Rimington and Bekker, NATURE, 129, 687; 1932.
Fraser and Roberts, NATURE, 130, 473; 1932.
Evans, J. Agric. Sci., 21, 806; 1931.
Wool Survey of the Empire Marketing Board, 57; 1932.
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WOODMAN, H., EVANS, R. Cystine and Wool Production. Nature 130, 1001 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/1301001a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1301001a0
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