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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #224972
Title: Archaea in the intestinal tract of pigs

Author
item Ziemer, Cherie
item Weber, Thomas
item Kerr, Brian

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/21/2008
Publication Date: 8/22/2008
Citation: Ziemer, C.J., Weber, T.E., Kerr, B.J. 2008. Archaea in the intestinal tract of pigs [abstract]. 12th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, August 17-22, 2008, Cairns, Australia. 2008 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Knowledge of Archaea in the intestinal tract of pigs is limited. In order to investigate archaeal community structure, samples were taken from the cecum and proximal colon of finishing pigs (24) fed diets with either corn or solvent extracted corn germ meal (CGM). Corn germ meal feeding began in weaning diets at 7.5% and was increased, in phases, to 40% in finishing diets; total feeding period was 16 weeks. After 16 weeks, samples were obtained from the cecum and proximal colon and initial analysis used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) targeting the V3 region of the16S rRNA gene to examine archaeal community dynamics. Diet had no effect on the number of DGGE bands in either the cecum or proximal colon. The number of bands in cecal samples (average 3 bands/sample) was significantly greater (P<0.001) than in proximal colon samples (average 1 band/sample). In the cecum, most samples had 2 to 5 DDGE bands; whereas in the proximal colon, 3 samples had no bands and 12 samples had just 1 band. No similarities among samples due to dietary treatment were evident from cluster analysis of DGGE banding patterns. Nine of 12 proximal colon samples with a single band clustered with 100% similarity. Initial sequence analysis revealed bands were similar to uncultured Archaea within the genera Methanosphaera, Methaobrevibacter, and Methanobacteriales. Archaea were present in the cecum and proximal colon of pigs and represented methanogenes with limited diversity.