Graphical Abstract
Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) is a naturally occurring precursor to creatine, an source of energy for skeletal muscle. Feeding GAA to chickens, pigs and cattle improves growth performance through a mechanism that may include increased serum IGF-1 and feed conversion (He et al., 2018; Faraji et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020). The formation of creatine from GAA uses a considerable number of methyl donors, arginine and glycine (Ostojic, 2016). The consequences of feeding GAA to methyl-group deficient cattle was investigated by Ardalan et al (2021). Although GAA increased serum creatine concentrations in both sufficient and deficient animals, protein deposition was most effective when added methionine was included in the diet. Further research is required to better understand the relationship between methyl donor supply, GAA and creatine metabolism.
References
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