title: Isolation, identification and fibrolytic characteristics of rumen fungi grown with indigenous methanogen from yaks (Bos grunniens) grazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To obtain co-cultures of anaerobic fungi and their indigenously associated methanogens from the rumen of yaks grazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and investigate their morphology features and ability to degrade lignocellulose.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty fungus-methanogen co-cultures were obtained by Hungate roll-tube technique. The fungi were identified as Orpinomyces, Neocallimastix and Piromyces genera based on the morphological characteristics and internal transcribed spacer 1 sequences analysis. All methanogens were identified as Methanobrevibacter sp. by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. There were four types of co-cultures: Neocallimastix with Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, Orpinomyces with M. ruminantium, Orpinomyces with Methanobrevibacter millerae and Piromyces with M. ruminantium among 20 co-cultures. In vitro studies with wheat straw as substrate showed that the Neocallimastix with M. ruminantium co-cultures and Piromyces with M. ruminantium co-cultures exhibited higher xylanase, filter paper cellulase (FPase), ferulic acid esterase, acetyl esterase activities, in vitro dry matter digestibility, gas, CH4 , acetate production, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid releases. The Neocallimastix frontalis Yak16 with M. ruminantium co-culture presented the strongest lignocellulose degradation ability among 20 co-cultures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Twenty fungus-methanogen co-cultures were obtained from the rumen of grazing yaks. The N. frontalis with M. ruminantium co-cultures were highly effective combination for developing a fermentative system that bioconverts lignocellulose to high activity fibre-degrading enzyme, CH4 and acetate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The N. frontalis with M. ruminantium co-cultures from yaks grazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau present great potential in lignocellulose biodegradation industry.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.|Institute of Biological Research, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Y-Q
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: R-J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Y-J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Research, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Z-Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D002480:Cellulase / Q000378:metabolism; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism*; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000378:metabolism*; D004063:Digestion; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012417:Rumen / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D004043:Dietary Fiber; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D002482:Cellulose; D002480:Cellulase; D008697:Methane
keywords: anaerobic fungi; co-culture; methanogen; rumen; yak