Breed and ruminal fraction effects on bacterial and archaeal community composition in sheep

Breed and ruminal fraction effects on bacterial and archaeal community composition in sheep

While the breed of cattle can impact on the composition and structure of microbial communities in the rumen, breed-specific effects on rumen microbial communities have rarely been examined in sheep. In addition, rumen microbial composition can differ between ruminal fractions, and be associated with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 3336
Main Authors: McLoughlin, Steven, Spillane, Charles, Campion, Francis P., Claffey, Noel, Sosa, Chrystian C., McNicholas, Yvonne, Smith, Paul E., Diskin, Michael G., Waters, Sinéad M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27-02-2023
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
704/158/855
704/172/4081
Animals
Archaea - genetics
Bacteria
Campylobacter
Cattle
Clostridiales
Community composition
Efficiency
Emissions
Feed conversion
Feed efficiency
Geographical distribution
Grass silage
Humanities and Social Sciences
Microbial activity
multidisciplinary
Plant Breeding
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
rRNA 16S
Rumen
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sheep
Veillonellaceae
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Summary:While the breed of cattle can impact on the composition and structure of microbial communities in the rumen, breed-specific effects on rumen microbial communities have rarely been examined in sheep. In addition, rumen microbial composition can differ between ruminal fractions, and be associated with ruminant feed efficiency and methane emissions. In this study, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used to investigate the effects of breed and ruminal fraction on bacterial and archaeal communities in sheep. Solid, liquid and epithelial rumen samples were obtained from a total of 36 lambs, across 4 different sheep breeds (Cheviot (n = 10), Connemara (n = 6), Lanark (n = 10) and Perth (n = 10)), undergoing detailed measurements of feed efficiency, who were offered a nut based cereal diet  ad-libitum supplemented with grass silage. Our results demonstrate that the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lowest for the Cheviot (most efficient), and highest for the Connemara breed (least efficient). In the solid fraction, bacterial community richness was lowest in the Cheviot breed, while Sharpea azabuensis was most abundant in the Perth breed. Lanark, Cheviot and Perth breeds exhibited a significantly higher abundance of epithelial associated Succiniclasticum compared to the Connemara breed. When comparing ruminal fractions, Campylobacter , Family XIII, Mogibacterium , and Lachnospiraceae UCG-008 were most abundant in the epithelial fraction. Our findings indicate that breed can impact the abundance of specific bacterial taxa in sheep while having little effect on the overall composition of the microbial community. This finding has implications for genetic selection breeding programs aimed at improving feed conversion efficiency of sheep. Furthermore, the variations in the distribution of bacterial species identified between ruminal fractions, notably between solid and epithelial fractions, reveals a rumen fraction bias, which has implications for sheep rumen sampling techniques.
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content type line 23
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-28909-1