Heritable Bovine Rumen Bacteria Are Phylogenetically Related and Correlated with the Cow’s Capacity To Harvest Energy from Its Feed
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ABSTRACT Ruminants sustain a long-lasting obligatory relationship with their rumen microbiome dating back 50 million years. In this unique host-microbiome relationship, the host’s ability to digest its feed is completely dependent on its coevolved microbiome. This extraordinary alliance raises questions regarding the dependent relationship between ruminants’ genetics and physiology and the rumen microbiome structure, composition, and metabolism. To elucidate this relationship, we examined the association of host genetics with the phylogenetic and functional composition of the rumen microbiome. We accomplished this by studying a population of 78 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows, using a combination of rumen microbiota data and other phenotypes from each animal with genotypic data from a subset of 47 animals. We identified 22 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) whose abundances were associated with rumen metabolic traits and host physiological traits and which showed measurable heritability. The abundance patterns of these microbes can explain high proportions of variance in rumen metabolism and many of the host physiological attributes such as its energy-harvesting efficiency. Interestingly, these OTUs shared higher phylogenetic similarity between themselves than expected by chance, suggesting occupation of a specific ecological niche within the rumen ecosystem. The findings presented here suggest that ruminant genetics and physiology are correlated with microbiome structure and that host genetics may shape the microbiome landscape by enriching for phylogenetically related taxa that may occupy a unique niche. IMPORTANCE Dairy cows are an essential nutritional source for the world’s population; as such, they are extensively farmed throughout our planet and subsequently impact our environment. The microbial communities that reside in the upper digestive tract of these animals in a compartment named the rumen degrade and ferment the plant biomass that the animal ingests. Our recent efforts, as well as those of others, have shown that this microbial community’s composition and functionality are tightly linked to the cow’s capacity to harvest energy from its feed, as well as to other physiological traits. In this study, we identified microbial groups that are heritable and also linked to the cow’s production parameters. This finding could potentially allow us to apply selection programs on specific rumen microbial components that are linked to the animal’s physiology and beneficial to production. Hence, it is a steppingstone toward microbiome manipulation for increasing food availability while lowering environmental impacts such as methane emission.
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These heritable OTUs were correlated with traits such as DMI (dry matter intake) and RFI.
“In addition, these heritable OTUs were found to be correlated with traits such as DMI (dry matter intake) and RFI.”
From Addressing global ruminant agricultural challenges through understanding the rumen microbiome: past, present, and future (2018) · cites this paper as Sasson et al., 2017
22 bacterial OTUs exhibited a heritability estimate of 0.7 or greater in dairy cattle.
“Using sire progeny groups in dairy cattle, further evidence of genetic control was documented by the discovery that 22 bacterial OTUs, exhibited a heritability estimate of 0.7 or greater in dairy cattle (Sasson et al., 2017).”
From Addressing global ruminant agricultural challenges through understanding the rumen microbiome: past, present, and future (2018) · cites this paper as Sasson et al., 2017
Our current understanding of the extent of host genetic influence on the rumen microbiome and the underlying mechanisms remains incomplete.
“our current understanding of the extent of this influence and the underlying mechanisms (Sasson et al., 2017) remains incomplete,”
From Addressing global ruminant agricultural challenges through understanding the rumen microbiome: past, present, and future (2018) · cites this paper as Sasson et al., 2017
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- Authors
- Sasson, G., Kruger Ben-Shabat, S., Seroussi, E., Doron-Faigenboim, A., Shterzer, N., Yaacoby, S., Berg Miller, M. E., White, B. A., Halperin, E., & Mizrahi, I.
- Affiliations
- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (IL)
- Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
- Agricultural Research Organization (IL)
- Department of Ruminant Science, Institute of Animal Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
- Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Mizrahi, Itzhak
- Venue
- mBio
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Published
- 2017-09-06
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 2150-7511 (ISSN-L)
- 2161-2129
- PMC
- PMC5559629
- OpenAlex
- W2749417525
- Cited by
- 219
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 18
- FWCI
- 30.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- mBio (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Bi-national agricultural research and development found (Project No. IS-4801-15C)
- European Research Consul (No. 640384)
- ICA (713 02-15-08a)
- Israel Science Foundation (No. 1313/13)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Keywords
- rumen microbiome, dairy cattle, host-microbiome coevolution, heritability, rumen bacteria, phylogenetic relatedness, energy harvesting, rumen fermentation, host genetics, microbial niche, microbiome manipulation, methane emissions, Holstein cows
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Animals, Animal Feed, Bacteria, Cattle, Energy Metabolism, Female, Methane, Phylogeny, Rumen, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Biomass, Metagenome
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