Rumen microbiome from steers differing in feed efficiency

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 6; p. e0129174
• Main Authors: Myer, Phillip R, Smith, Timothy P L, Wells, James E, Kuehn, Larry A, Freetly, Harvey C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01-06-2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Alfalfa; Analysis; Animal Feed; Animals; Bacteria; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Beef cattle; Bivariate analysis; Body weight; Body weight gain; Cattle; Cattle feed; Corn; Diet; DNA, Bacterial; Dry matter; Ecology; Efficiency; Environmental changes; Feed efficiency; Feeds; Genera; Grain; Host plants; Intestine; Legal fees; Male; Mice; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Nutrition research; Populations; RNA; rRNA 16S; Rumen; Rumen - metabolism; Rumen - microbiology; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Smith, James; Studies; Urea; Weaning; United States > US; Nebraska
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129174

The cattle rumen has a diverse microbial ecosystem that is essential for the host to digest plant material. Extremes in body weight (BW) gain in mice and humans have been associated with different intestinal microbial populations. The objective of this study was to characterize the microbiome of the cattle rumen among steers differing in feed efficiency. Two contemporary groups of steers (n=148 and n=197) were fed a ration (dry matter basis) of 57.35% dry-rolled corn, 30% wet distillers grain with solubles, 8% alfalfa hay, 4.25% supplement, and 0.4% urea for 63 days. Individual feed intake (FI) and BW gain were determined. Within contemporary group, the four steers within each Cartesian quadrant were sampled (n=16/group) from the bivariate distribution of average daily BW gain and average daily FI. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons were sequenced from the harvested bovine rumen fluid samples using next-generation sequencing technology. No significant changes in diversity or richness were indicated, and UniFrac principal coordinate analysis did not show any separation of microbial communities within the rumen. However, the abundances of relative microbial populations and operational taxonomic units did reveal significant differences with reference to feed efficiency groups. Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the dominant phyla in all ruminal groups, with significant population shifts in relevant ruminal taxa, including phyla Firmicutes and Lentisphaerae, as well as genera Succiniclasticum, Lactobacillus, Ruminococcus, and Prevotella. This study suggests the involvement of the rumen microbiome as a component influencing the efficiency of weight gain at the 16S level, which can be utilized to better understand variations in microbial ecology as well as host factors that will improve feed efficiency.