Altitude influences microbial diversity and herbage fermentation in the rumen of yaks
Date
2020-12-04
item.page.datecreated
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC
Abstract
Background: Rumen microbiota in ruminants are vital for sustaining good rumen ecology, health, and productivity.
Currently, limited information is available regarding the response of yaks (Bos grunniens) to fluctuating
environments, especially the rumen microbiome. To address this, we investigated the diet, rumen bacterial
community, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) of rumen fluid of yaks raised in the great Qinghai-Tibet plateau (QTP) at
2800 (low altitude, L), 3700 (middle altitude, M), and 4700 m (high altitude, H) above sea level.
Results: The results showed that despite a partial diet overlap, H yaks harbored higher fibrous fractious contents
than the M and L grazing yaks. Bacteria including Christensenellaceae_R-7_group, Ruminococcus_1, Romboutsia,
Alloprevotella, Eubacterium coprostanoligenes, Clostridium, Streptococcus, and Treponema were found to be enriched
in the rumen of yaks grazing at H. They also showed higher rumen microbial diversity and total VFA concentrations
than those shown by yaks at M and L. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) on weighted UniFrac distances revealed
that the bacterial community structure of rumen differed between the three altitudes. Moreover, Tax4fun
metagenome estimation revealed that microbial genes associated with energy requirement and carbohydrate
metabolic fate were overexpressed in the rumen microbiota of H yaks.
Conclusions: Collectively, our results revealed that H yaks had a stronger herbage fermenting ability via rumen
microbial fermentation. Their enhanced ability of utilizing herbage may be partly owing to a microbiota adaptation
for more energy requirements in the harsh H environment, such as lower temperature and the risk of hypoxia.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 27 November 2020; Published online - 4 December 2020
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
Yak, Rumen microbiota, VFA profiles, Fermenting ability, High altitude
Citation
Fan, Q., Wanapat, M., Yan, T. and Hou, F. (2020) ‘Altitude influences microbial diversity and herbage fermentation in the rumen of yaks’, BMC Microbiology, 20(1), p. 370. doi: 10.1186/s12866-020-02054-5.