Life, as we know it, has emerged from the association of simple building blocks (e.g. HCN, NH3, aldehydes, etc). The reactions required to form the complex subunits of life face a great entropic barrier due to the intermolecular nature of their reactivity. Intermolecular reactions are slow at low concentrations, and therefore, the assembly of complex subunits requires the presence of a concentration mechanism. Formaldehyde, which was present in concentrations as high as 0.02 M, may have been used as a concentration mechanism on early Earth. By tethering two molecules together, formaldehyde allows catalysis via temporary intramolecularity. Moreover, formaldehyde has been shown to act as a hydrolase / hydratase mimic, allowing important rate accelerations in hydration and hydrolysis reactions which are of fundamental importance to prebiotic chemistry. Herein, the efficiency of formaldehyde as a catalyst, operating via temporary intramolecularity is demonstrated for a hydroamination reaction that occurs in dilute aqueous conditions. First, using soluble N-methylallylamine and Nmethylhydroxylamine, formaldehyde allowed catalytic turnover at prebiotically relevant formaldehyde concentrations (0.02 M) for a model hydroamination reaction. The efficiency of formaldehyde was compared to other prebiotic aldehydes, demonstrating that although other prebiotic aldehydes are capable of inducing temporary intramolecularity, they were inferior.A second small molecule which may have played a role in the origin of life is D-glyceraldehyde. Since life’s molecules are homochiral, there is a need to explain how this homochirality arose. There have been many breakthroughs by the scientific community when it comes to addressing this challenge, however there is still no general consensus on the origins of homochirality from a prebiotic perspective. Herein, we demonstrate that D-glyceraldehyde is capable of templating a challenging intermolecular reaction while also transmitting some of its chirality to the product. Though the enantiomeric excess produced was generally low (usually around 20 %), there is a significance behind these results due to prebiotically relevant amplification procedures. Lastly, formaldehyde is examined as a possible desymmetrizing agent; coupled with Brønsted acids, the possibility of formaldehyde to induce desymmetrization of alpha-amino or alpha-hydroxy diesters to produce azlactones, and oxalactones, respectively will be established. Moreover, the use of a chiral Brønsted acid would introduce the ability to achieve this transformation in an enantioselective manner. The resulting azlactones / oxalactones are valuable for two reasons: 1) the lactones are present in bioactive molecules, and 2) the lactones can be hydrolyzed to produce chiral alpha-amino / alpha-hydroxy acids. Therefore, we began a systematic study of the conditions required to allow this transformation to occur. This study indicates that the desymmetrization of an alpha-amino diester is possible, producing moderate yields of the resulting azlactone. The desymmetrization of alpha-hydroxy diesters however proved more challenging, and no conversion was observed. Further investigation is required to the increase efficiency of the desymmetrizations, and experimentation with chiral Brønsted acids is required in order to discover enantioselective transformations.

The primary objectives of the following experiments were to: 1) determine the impact of a directed microbial (DFM) blend on digestibility and microbial populations on horses fed low (LQ) and high (HQ) quality hay, 2) evaluate the differences in diet digestibility, microbial populations, and blood metabolites due to DFM supplementation to the exercising horse, 3) assess the impact of short-chain fructooligosaccharide (scFOS) supplementation on digestibility and the fecal microbial ecosystem in senior (SR) vs. mature (MA) horses, and 4) determine the relationship between insulin dysregulation (ID) and morphometric neck measurements (MNM) in the non-obese stock-type horse. Results indicated that: 1) Supplementation with DFM tended to be beneficial in enhancing CP digestibility. Feeding CP beyond requirements may contribute to excess excretion of Escherichia coli (EC) in HQ which was supported by 16S rRNA analysis. Differences in the fecal microbial ecosystem were detected between LQ and HQ. The phylum Saccharibacteria was identified in both hay qualities even though it has been lightly reported in equine literature. 2) Supplementing DFM to moderately exercised horses tended to enhance DM and ADF digestibility but there was no evidence of a dietary modulation to the fecal bacteria isolated. 3) No differences were found between MA and SR when fed scFOSded ration balancer which indicates that scFOS may help mitigate decreases in digestibility experienced by SR. Senior horses had less diversity in their fecal bacterial population, which may help explain why SR are more prone to ailments such as colic and impaired immune function. 4) Obesity is an important genetic factor for ID however it should not be the only determining factor, as ID can occur in non-obese individuals. One individual out of 62 tested horses was identified as ID. Morphometric neck measurements (MNM) may help pinpoint horses that are at a greater risk for ID, but more research is needed to validate MNM in both obese and non-obese stock-type horses. There were correlations between glucose sampled before an oral sugar test (OST) and insulin post-OST but a fasting OST would still be recommended in assessing ID.

The use of antibiotics as growth promotors in the food animal industry has led to the generation of antibiotic resistant microorganisms, which are a major health risk to humans. Therefore, bans and limitations, including the FDA’s veterinary feed directive, have been placed on the use of antibiotics as growth promotors, and there has been a push to find an adequate alternative. In the laying hen, probiotics and/or prebiotics have shown promise as they help promote the colonization of beneficial bacteria in the GI tract of the host, increase feed efficiency, increase egg production, and provide protection against pathogenic bacteria. In this feeding trial, Leghorn HyLine W36 hens were fed diets supplemented with either 0.05% IMW50(prebiotic), 0.05% CALSPORIN (probiotic), 0.05% IMW50 and 0.05% CALSPORIN, or a control diet with no prebiotic or probiotic additive. The birds were maintained on this diet from 1 day to 66 weeks of age, over which time feed intake and egg production was measured. From 37 to 65 weeks of age, every 3-5 weeks, egg quality was evaluated through specific gravity, egg weight, albumen height, and eggshell breaking force measurements. At 6, 16, 32, and 64 weeks of age, the microbiota population in the ileal digesta was evaluated using T-RFLP analysis methods. Then at 64 weeks of age, splenic IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12 expression was measured by RT-qPCR. Unexpectedly, fluctuations in feed disappearance were observed, potentially linked to factors such as changes in diet type, temperature variations, feed wastage, or a technical error. Birds on CALSPORIN-containing diets showed resilience and maintained egg production during a decline in feed disappearance, suggesting enhanced capabilities in digesting larger particle sizes. However, there were trade-offs, as egg quality parameters slightly decreased in supplemented diets. CALSPORIN alone showed a promising effect on survival probability. Microbial diversity in the ileum increased with CALSPORIN, but the IMW50 alone led dysbiosis, possibly impacting infection resistance. Additionally, the combined supplementation of IMW50 and CALSPORIN may have introduced a disruption in immunological homeostasis.

Anthropogenic impacts to the environment are unavoidable currently; however, my research investigates a potential mitigation method for amphibians dealing with poor health outcomes caused by detrimental anthropogenic changes to their wetlands. Environmental stressors such as antibiotics leeching from manure of domesticated farm animals into local wetlands can cause a dysbiosis of the gastrointestinal bacterial flora within tadpoles. Dysbiosis of gastrointestinal bacteria during early tadpole development is associated with a decrease in development rate, decrease in body mass accumulation, and other poor health outcomes. I investigated if increasing the indigestible fiber (prebiotic) content in wood frog tadpole’s alfalfa based diet could return tadpoles with stripped microbiomes (dysbiotic gastrointestinal bacterial community composition) to the same phenotype of healthy control tadpoles. I also did a pilot study to see if diet could help in increasing survival post infection with Ranavirus, and from both studies, I created NGSS aligned curriculum and activities. I found that a 10% corn starch enriched alfalfa diet significantly increased the body mass accumulation and development rate of stripped tadpoles. I found there was an association with metabolism and gut dysbiosis. Unfortunately, the connection in regards to corticosterone release was unclear. There was an association with diet and survival, but it needs to be repeated with a larger sample size.

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is a byproduct of distillation. Its increased availability has led to research into overcoming the nutritional limitations of its high non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) content for use in monogastric animal feed. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two factors (the inclusion of DDGS and/or inclusion of a carbohydrase mixture) on the richness and abundance of swine gastrointestinal bacteria. The carbohydrase mixture was expected to aid digestion, leading to increased nutritional availability for the host while simultaneously shifting dominant communities within the gut microbiome. Ileal cannulated pigs (n = 8, BW = 64.3 +/-0.5 kg) were allotted to 4 dietary treatments in a replicated 4 x 4 Latin square design. Treatments resulted in changes to bacterial richness, and diets containing DDGS increased the 16S rDNA abundance of members of Bacteroides (P < 0.0001), Ruminococcus (P < 0.0001), the Clostridium coccoides group (P <0.0001), and the Clostridium leptum subgroup (P = 0.005). Significant interactions between diet and carbohydrases were determined for total bacteria in the ileal digesta (P = 0.01) and feces (P = 0.02), Bacteroides (P = 0.003), and the Clostrdium leptum subgroup (P = 0.03). The DDGS diet with the inclusion of the carbohydrases was able to maintain, or increase the abundance of fiber degrading bacteria while theoretically increasing nutrition for the host. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

A series of investigations were conducted in order to characterise the GIT microbiota of salmonids and to determine the effect of microbial modulating feed additives on the intestinal microbiota, immunity and growth of salmonids. The first experiment, Chapter three, used PCR-DGGE and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of cultivable bacteria were used to investigate the GIT microbiota of brown trout. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis demonstrated that Citrobacter freundii and Carnobacterium maltaromaticum were the predominant culturable viable bacteria and lactic acid bacteria, respectively in all regions of the GIT. DGGE revealed complex communities with a diverse range of microbes from the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla. The latter chapters focused not only identifying the gut microbiota of salmonids, but also on the ability of probiotics and prebiotics to modulate these communities. In Chapter four, rainbow trout were fed a commercial diet supplemented with P. acidilactici for four weeks. P. acidilactici was detected in the GIT of the probiotic group by multiple methods and P. acidilactici was able to persist for at least 24h at the cessation of probiotic feeding. Histological appraisal on the intestine revealed significantly higher microvilli density in the posterior mucosa and a higher density of goblet cells in the anterior mucosa of the probiotic fed fish. RT-PCR results demonstrated that IL-1β, IL-8 and IgT gene expression were up-regulated in the P. acidilactici fed fish at the end of the study. Whilst mRNA of PCNA, HSP70 and casp-3 were down-regulated in the probiotic group at both sampling points. In Chapter five, the efficacy of dietary administration of P. acidilactici and short chain fructooligosaccharide (scFOS) on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) was evaluated at 63 and 132 days. Compared to the control group, total bacterial cell counts in all regions of the intestine with exception of the anterior digesta were significantly lower in the synbiotic group at the mid sampling point. PCR-DGGE revealed that species richness, diversity and the number of OTUs were significantly higher in the synbiotic group in the anterior digesta at the mid sampling point. Intestinal microvilli and villi length were increased in the anterior intestine of the synbiotic fed group at the end sampling point. IEL levels were increased in the synbiotic group in the posterior intestine at both sampling points. The expression of immunological genes were significantly up-regulated in the synbiotic fed salmon. In Chapter six, rainbow trout were fed three diets fishmeal (FM), soybean meal (SBM) and PlantMix diets supplemented with or without P. acidilactici for 12 weeks. At both sampling points, with exception of fish fed FM, LAB levels were significantly higher in all probiotic groups compared to the control groups. Serum lysozyme activity was significantly higher in fish fed FM and SBM diets containing P. acidilactici than that of fish fed the control diets. This body of research demonstrates that P. acidilactici can modulate immune response via up-regulation of immune genes as well as modulate IEL and goblet cell levels. Despite these benefits, P. acidilactici had no detrimental effects on growth performance.

A series of investigations were conducted in order to evaluate the effect of MOS supplementation in finfish aquaculture. Fish with great potential in aquaculture industry were tested with regards to effect of dietary MOS supplementation on intestinal histology and microbiology as well as overall animal health and production. Two levels of MOS supplementation were applied 0.2% and 0.4%. Experimental fish were Atlantic salmon (Salmon salar), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchys mykiss), sole (Solea senegalensis) and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). The results from the sea bream studies revealed that MOS supplementation may have a beneficial effect on growth performance of fish greater than 100 g. Additionally, there is a systemic improvement of the intestinal histology for all species investigated, especially when using 0.4% of MOS supplementation level. Both light and electron microscopy revealed increased intestinal surface and improved intestinal integrity of MOS fed fish. MOS alters the intestinal microbiota, in the case of gilthead sea bream modulation was evident even when fish were fed 0.2% dietary MOS for as little as 2 weeks. Blood immune parameters were also affected by the MOS inclusion and total leukocytes counts were increased and leukocytes relative abundance was also changed. MOS induced intestinal microbial modulation was more evident in fish are reared in outdoor conditions. Feed utilization and digestibility were improved with the addition of 0.4% MOS supplementation in the Atlantic salmon. The sole experiment revealed that MOS could reduce fish mortalities induced by pasteurelliosis. These investigations, suggest a potential role for application of MOS in aquaculture. Future research should be conducted in order to evaluate other parameters that MOS may influence and ascertain optimum dosage for each fish species and developmental stage.

Orientador: Aulus Cavalieri Carciofi / Resumo: Derivados da parede celular de levedura têm sido estudados por seu efeito prebiótico. Recentemente, preparações purificadas e mais solúveis foram desenvolvidas, com vista a aumentar seu efeito fisiológico. Este estudo teve por objetivo avaliar os efeitos da inclusão de dois diferentes extratos da parede celular de leveduras, um convencional (PCL) e outro com maior porcentagem de mananoligossacarídeos solúveis (PCLs) sobre a digestibilidade, produtos de fermentação nas fezes e alguns parâmetros imunológicos de cães adultos hígidos. Foi empregada uma única formulação, desdobrada em três tratamentos: CON – controle, sem adição de parede celular de levedura; PCL – adição de 0,3% de parede celular de levedura convencional; PCLs - adição de 0,3% de parede celular de levedura com elevada solubilidade de mananoligossacarídeos (MOS). Foram utilizados 24 cães beagle adultos, com oito repetições por ração, em delineamento em blocos casualizados. Cada bloco teve duração 30 dias, sendo avaliados no início e no final do período as concentrações séricas de fator de necrose tumoral alfa e interleucinas 6 e 10, produção ex vivo de intermediários reativos do oxigênio e nitrogênio por células mononucleares e polimorfonucleares de sangue periférico, capacidade fagocítica de monócitos e neutrófilos e concentração de IgA nas fezes. Adicionalmente, foi avaliada a digestiblidade aparente dos nutrientes, produção e qualidade das fezes, ácidos graxos de cadeia curta e ramificada, lactato, amônia, pH e... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Derivates of yeast cell wall have been studied by its prebiotic effect. Recently, more purified and soluble preparations were developed, attempting to increase their biological actions. This study evaluated the inclusion of two yeast cell wall preparations, one conventional (YCW), and another with higher solubility of the mannan oligosaccharide fraction (YCWs), on their effects on nutrient digestibility, fermentation products on feces, and some immunological parameters of dogs. A single food formulation was used, unfolded on the following treatments: CON – control, without yeast cell wall addition; YCW – addition of 0.3% of a conventional yeas cell wall extract; YCWs – addition of 0.3% of a yeast cell wall extraction with elevated mannan oligosaccharides solubility. Twenty-four adult beagle dogs were used, eight dogs per food, distributed on a randomized block design. Blocks lasted 30 days, and tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukins 6 and 10, ex vivo production of hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide by peripheral neutrophils and monocytes, phagocytic index, and fecal IgA were evaluated at the beginning and ending of each period. Additionally, nutrient digestibility, feces production and quality, and fermentation products, pH, and biogenic amines were quantified on feces. Results were evaluated by variance analysis and compared by Tukey test (P<0.05). For the immunological parameters, the basal values were used as a covariate. The inclusion of YCWs reduced fat digestibili... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

O paradigma de sistemas de moléculas auto-replicantes é o modelo de quase-espécies, no qual as moléculas são representadas por seqüências binárias de tamanho L e o mecanismo de replicação é suposto imperfeito. Em particular, cada seqüência é gerada corretamente com probabilidade Q = qL, onde q é a probabilidade de cópia exata por dígito. Um dos resultados mais intrigantes no modelo para o relevo de replicação de pico único, no qual há apenas um tipo de molécula com vantagem seletiva a em relação aos outros tipos, é a observação de um limiar de erro a partir do qual toda informação biológica relevante é perdida. A transição de limiar de erro verificada para Qc = l /a pode ser visualizada como uma transição de fase do tipo ordem-desordem. Verificamos que a largura dessa transição decresce com L de acordo com L-1. Concluímos também que as grandezas físicas de interesse são bem descritas por meio de funções de escala. Elaboramos ainda uma versão estocástica (isto é, tamanho de população N finito) para o modelo de quase-espécies, no qual a dinâmica é descrita por uma cadeia de Markov. Mostramos que o tempo característico &#964 para o desaparecimento de seqüências mestras na população obedece uma relação de escala bem definida. A transição em nosso modelo é constatada através da divergência de &#964 em Qc no limite de N &#8594 &#8734 ,sendo que a largura da transição decresce de acordo com N -1/2. Em nossa abordagem não utilizamos nenhuma definição arbitrária para o limiar de erro para população finita. Como solução para o problema da crise de informação associada ao limiar de erro estudamos o modelo de hiperciclos. Neste modelo, as macromoléculas se replicam com o auxílio de outros membros do hiperciclo por meio do mecanismo de catálise. Estudamos analiticamente a propagação de erro no hiperciclo e obtemos os diagramas de fases no espaço de parâmetros para vários tamanhos de hiperciclo n. Esses diagramas descrevem as regiões de estabilidade das diversas soluções de estado estacionário do sistema. Constatamos que para hiperciclos com n &#8804 4 existe um limiar de erro menor que aquele verificado no modelo de quase-espécies. Desde que o suporte catalítico realizado por uma molécula no hiperciclo pode ser considerado de fato um comportamento altruísta, modelos para evolução do altruísmo como, a teoria de seleção de grupos, têm sido utilizados no contexto de evolução pré-biótica. Aqui investigamos a evolução da produção de enzimas e os efeitos de sinergia utilizando esses conceitos. / The quasi-species model is the paradigm of systems composed of self-replicating molecules, which are represented by sequences of fixed length L. The replication machinery is assumed to be imperfect. Particularly, each sequence is copied exactly with probability Q=qL, where q denotes the probability of exact copy per digit. One of the most intriguing results of the model for the single-peak replication landscape, which considers the existence of a master sequence that has a selective advantage a in comparison to the other types, is the occurrence of an error threshold phenomenon beyond the biological information is completely lost. The error threshold transition can be viewed as an order-disorder phase-transition. We investigated the sharpness of the threshold and found that its characteristics persist across a range of Q of order L-1 about Qc. Other physical quantities of interest are also well described by universal functions. We formulate a stochastic version (i.e., finite population size N) for the quasispecies model, in which a Markov chain defines the dynamics. We show that the characteristic time r for the disappearance of master sequences in the population obeys a well defined scaling relation. The transition in this model is signalized by the divergente of t at Qc in the limit N &#8594 &#8734, and the sharpness of the transition decreases like N -1/2. In our approach we do not use any arbitrary definition of the error threshold for finite population. As a solution for the information crisis associated to the error threshold, here we considered the hypercycle model, where the macromolecules self-replicate with the catalytic support of the other members of the hypercycle. We study analytically the error propagation in the hypercycle and obtain the phases diagrams in the space of parameters for several hypercycle sizes n. These diagrams describe the stability regions of the steady state solutions of the system. We find that for hypercicle size n &#8804 4 the error threshold is smaller than that for the quasispecies model. Since the catalytic support developed by a molecule is in fact an altruistic behavior, some models for the evolution of altruism, for instance, the selection group theory, have been investigated in the context of pre-biotic evolution. Specifically, here we analyze the evolution of enzyme production and the effects of synergism.

O objetivo do estudo foi avaliar os efeitos da suplementação de levedura autolisada de Saccharomyces cerevisiae fornecida em duas diferentes inclusões em dietas para frangos de corte como alternativa a um antimicrobiano sobre desempenho zootécnico e avaliação do sistema imune intestinal pela realização da enumeração bacteriana, citometria de fluxo e expressão intestinal de genes ligados à resposta imune intestinal. Neste estudo foram utilizados 1260 pintos de corte machos de um dia de idade da linhagem ROSS AP95&reg; em um experimento de 1 a 35 dias de idade alojados em galpão climatizado com cama de casa de arroz nova. O experimento foi realizado em delineamento inteiramente aleatorizado, com 4 tratamentos e 7 repetições, com 45 aves por boxe. Os tratamentos utilizados foram: T1: ração basal e sem aditivo - controle negativo; T2: ração basal suplementada com 55 ppm de bacitracina de zinco - controle positivo; T3: controle negativo + 2 kg/t de levedura autolisada; T4: controle negativo + 4 kg/t de levedura autolisada. As dietas foram à base de milho e farelo de soja, sendo adicionados às rações 5% de farelo de trigo e 5% de farinha de penas e vísceras (sem tratamento prévio) com objetivo de impor um desafio nutricional aos animais. Ainda visando estimular imunologicamente os animais, aos 7 dias de idade, todas as aves foram desafiadas via ocular com uma vacina viva contendo oocistos de Eimeria sp. na dose recomendada pelo fabricante. Aos 8 dias de idade e 21 dias de idade, uma ave de cada unidade experimental, sem jejum prévio, teve sangue coletado e foi sacrificada para coleta de conteúdo intestinal ileal e cecal para realização da emumeração bacteriana de Enterococus sp., Escherichia coli e Lactobacillus sp., e para a coleta do segmento ileal para avaliar a expressão gênica intestinal de Claudin-1, IL-1&beta;, IL-4, TLR4 e MUC-2 através da PCR em tempo real. Em relação ao desempenho das aves, o tratamento T3 propiciou melhor conversão alimentar em relação a T1 até os 21 dias de idade. Para o período cumulativo, o tratamento T4 propiciou conversão alimentar semelhante ao T2, sendo esta variável melhor para estes tratamentos em relação ao controle negativo. Na enumeração de bactérias no íleo, aos 8 dias de idade, os tratamentos T3 e T4 modularam de forma distinta a contagem de Enterococus sp., e para o gênero Lactobacillus sp., ambos os grupos de levedura apresentaram menor contagem em contraste com o controle positivo. No conteúdo do ceco foi encontrado um menor número de E. coli para os animais grupo T3, diferentemente para o T2 que propiciou maior contagem. Aos 21 dias de idade, foi encontrado diferença na enumeração do gênero Enterococus sp. ileal, cuja contagem foi menor para o T2 em relação ao T1. Na na análise de citometria de fluxo, tendências foram observadas aos 8 dias de idade para o percentual de linfócitos T auxiliares (P=0,16) e para o percentual de linfócitos B (P=0,12) havendo redução com a suplementação de levedura autolisada. A mesma tendência (P=0,19) foi observada aos 21 dias de idade para a contagem de células T citóxicos. Sobre a PCR em tempo real, não foram detectadas diferenças para a expressão de Claudin-1. T2 e T4 propiciaram aumento da expressão gênica de IL-1&beta; aos 21 dias de idade em relação ao controle negativo, sendo que T2 também promoveu aumento de TLR-4 aos 8 dias de idade. Tendências foram observadas com a maior expressão de IL-4 (P=0,06) aos 21 dias de idade pelo T2 e aumento na expressão de MUC-2 (P=0,09) pelo T4 aos 8 dias de idade. Os diferentes padrões de ativação ou não de citocinas revela uma estimulação da via Th2 pelo controle positivo (aumento de IL-1&beta; e IL-4) e da via Th17 pelo tratamento suplementado com 4 kg/t de levedura autolisada (aumento de IL-1&beta;). / The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae autolyzed yeast supplementation in substitution of AGP in broiler diets on performance and immune system (on two different feed inclusions for broilers diets in replacing AGP on broiler performance and evaluation of immune system trough bacterial enumeration, flux citometry and intestinal gene expression. For that, 1260 one-day-old male Ross AP95 chicks were raised from 1 to 35 days of age in a poultry house with new rice husk as litter. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 7 replications, with 45 birds per pen. The treatments were: T1: basal diet and no additive - negative control; T2: basal diet supplemented with 55 ppm of zinc bacitracin - positive control; T3: negative control + 2 kg/t of autolyzed yeast; T4: negative control + 4 kg/t of autolyzed yeast. The corn-soybean meal based diets contained 5% wheat bran and 5% poultry by-product meal (with no previous treatment) in order to impose a nutritional challenge to the animals. To impose a further immunological challenge, at 7 days of age, all the birds were eye drop-vaccinated with live vaccine containing Eimeira sp. oocysts at the manufacturer recommended dosis. At 8 and 21 days of age, one chick per experimental unit, with no fasting, had the blood collected and was sacrificed for sampling the ileal and cecal intestinal contents for enumeration of Enterococus sp., Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus sp. Also, the ileal segment was sampled for intestinal gene expression of Claudin-1, IL-1&beta;, IL-4, TLR4 e MUC-2 by RNA extraction through real time PCR. For the performance results at 21 days of age, T3 had the same feed conversion rate of T1. For the cumulative grow-out, T4 had the same feed conversion rate as T2, being this variable better for the aforementioned tretaments in comparison to negative control. For ileal bacterial enumeration, at 8 days of age, T3 and T4 modulated distinctly the enumeration of Enterococus sp., and reduced the counts of Lactobacillus sp. in comparison to the positive control. In the cecal contents, the enumeration for E. coli was the lowest for T3, differing from the positive control. At 21 days of age, there was a difference in ileal Enterococus sp., with higher counts for T2 relative to T1. In the flux citometry, tendencies were observed at 8 days of age for T helper cells (P=0,16) and for B cells (P=0,12), which were reduced in the autolyzed yeast treatments. The same tendency (p=0.19) was seen at 21 days of age for T activated cytotoxic cells. For the real time PCR, there was no difference in the expression of Claudin-1 (P<0,05). T2 and T4 promoted upregulation of IL-1&beta; at 21 days of age (P<0,05) in comparison to the negative control; additionally, the antibiotic tretatment also upregulated the expression of TLR-4 at 8 days of age (P<0,05). Tendencies were observed as upregulation of IL-4 (P=0,06) at 21 days of age by positive control and upregulation of MUC-2 (P=0,09) by the treatment with 4 kg/t of autolyzed yeast at 8 days of age. The different profiles in activating or not cytokines reveals a stimulation of Th2 pathway for the positive control (upregulation of IL-1&beta; and IL-4) and Th17 pathway for the treatment supplemented with 4 kg/t of autolyzed yeast (upregulation of IL-1&beta;).