title: Assessment of Ruminal Bacterial and Archaeal Community Structure in Yak (Bos grunniens).
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the microbial community composition in the rumen of yaks under different feeding regimes. Microbial communities were assessed by sequencing bacterial and archaeal 16S ribosomal RNA gene fragments obtained from yaks (Bos grunniens) from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Samples were obtained from 14 animals allocated to either pasture grazing (Graze), a grazing and supplementary feeding regime (GSF), or an indoor feeding regime (Feed). The predominant bacterial phyla across feeding regimes wereBacteroidetes(51.06%) andFirmicutes(32.73%). At genus level, 25 genera were shared across all samples. The relative abundance ofPrevotellain the graze and GSF regime group were significantly higher than that in the feed regime group. Meanwhile, the relative abundance ofRuminococcuswas lower in the graze group than the feed and GSF regime groups. The most abundant archaeal phylum wasEuryarchaeota, which accounted for 99.67% of the sequences. Ten genera were detected across feeding regimes, seven genera were shared by all samples, and the most abundant was genusMethanobrevibacter(91.60%). The relative abundance of the most detected genera were similar across feeding regime groups. Our results suggest that the ruminal bacterial community structure differs across yak feeding regimes while the archaeal community structures are largely similar.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhenming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qingxiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shengli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Qinghai Academy of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Qinghai University Xining, China.
authors.forename: Shatuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Qinghai Academy of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Qinghai University Xining, China.
authors.forename: Shujie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Farm Animal Health, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan Thomas
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Schonewille
keywords: feeding regimes; ruminal archaeal community structures; ruminal bacterial community structure; sequencing; yak