Meta’omics applied to Brazilian Bos indicus: Exploring the unknown diversity of rumen microbiome and its relationship with the metabolome

Description:
The success of ruminant species in the colonization of different environments is due to their ability to ingest and metabolize cellulose, found abundantly in the pastures. This is possible thanks to the existence of a unique gastrointestinal structure, the rumen, populated by a complex microorganisms community, known as the ruminal microbiota.. Thanks to advances in the sequence technology, we are now able to explore the diversity of non-cultivable microorganisms through the use of meta’omics approaches, like metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and meta-metabolomics. These approaches can be applied directly to the community gene pool, enabling us to identify its taxonomic, genic and metabolic structure. Previous analysis indicated that some phenotypes, like methane emission were influenced by diet in our experimental material, therefore, this research aims to explore the taxonomic and genic diversities of the rumen microbiota and metabolites of the gastrointestinal structure (Rumen + faeces) of 52 animals, finished under two different feed intervention by means of metagenomic and metabolomic approaches, identifying the relation among taxas and gene abundance, metabolites, diet and phenotypic traits, including methane emission and feed efficiency. Data will be explored in the light of the knowledge generated by our previous projects (“Mechanisms of genetic regulation related to feed efficiency in Nelore bovines”, Universal CNPq 449172/2014-7; “Molecular bases of meet quality in Nelore bovines”, FAPESP 2012/23638-8), which will allow us to select priority genes and genomic positions for the host genome/diversity analysis. These results will greatly increase the knowledge of the diversity of a brazilian population of Nelore and have the potential to pave the way for a new layer of information to be considered in animal breeding and production.