A comparative study of phytate hydrolysis in the gastrointestinal tract of the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) and the laboratory rat.

The role of bacterial, dietary and intestinal phytases (EC 3.1.3.8) in the hydrolysis of phytate was investigated in the golden hamster and rat by assaying phytase in the small intestine and by measuring the disappearance of phytate from the stomach and large intestine, using chromium oxide as an insoluble solid-phase marker. It was confirmed that an active phytase was present in the proximal third of the small intestine of the rat but the enzyme was undetectable in the hamster. Extensive bacterial breakdown of phytate occurred in the pregastric pouch and true stomach of the hamster with both phytase-containing and phytase-free diets, with phytate digestibilities in the true stomach ranging from 0.69-0.90, confirming that the hamster can be regarded as a pseudo-ruminant. With a phytase-free diet, the digestibility of phytate in the stomach of the rat was very low (0.05) but with a wheat-based diet substantial breakdown of phytate occurred (digestibility up to 0.49), presumably under the influence of the cereal phytase. Intestinal phytase did not appear to be of great significance in the rat but some further hydrolysis of the residual phytate probably occurred in the large intestine of both species by bacterial phytase.