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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Cell Wall Biology and Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #412785
Research Project: Developing Strategies to Improve Dairy Cow Performance and Nutrient Use Efficiency with Nutrition, Genetics, and Microbiology

Location: Cell Wall Biology and Utilization Research

Title: Effects of microbial inoculum on the transcriptome and meta-transcriptome of rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum epithelium in calves

Author
item FREGULIA, PRISCILA - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item Zanton, Geoffrey
item Li, Wenli

Submitted to: American Dairy Science Association Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/18/2024
Publication Date: 6/16/2024
Citation: Fregulia, P., Zanton, G.I., Li, W. 2024. Effects of microbial inoculum on the transcriptome and meta-transcriptome of rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum epithelium in calves. American Dairy Science Association Abstracts. 107 (Supplement 1):28.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Early life microbial inoculation may affect the rumen environment, but the effects in other stomach chambers (SC) are largely unexplored. We intraruminally dosed three types of microbial inoculum in dairy calves and evaluated the effects in the rumen (Rum), reticulum (Ret), omasum (Oma), and abomasum (Abo) epithelial tissue transcriptomes (SC-T) and their associated meta-transcriptomes (SC-M). Fifteen Holstein bull calves were enrolled at birth and randomly assigned to one of the three treatments dosed orally once weekly from three to six weeks of age. Rumen fluid was collected from four adult cows and processed as autoclaved (control; C), bacteria-enriched (BE), or protozoa-enriched (PE) inoculum. After weaning at seven weeks of age, calves were euthanized at nine weeks and stomach chamber tissues were collected for SC-T and SC-M analysis. We used Cufflinks for differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis (p < 0.05, fold-change > 1.5), DeSeq2 for differential microbial abundance (DMA), and sPLS-DA for microbial community structure and taxonomic signature analysis. For the SC-T, comparing the SCs, there were 9628 DEG in Rum vs. Abo, 4821 in Rum vs. Oma, 2212 in Rum vs. Ret, 9219 in Abo vs. Ret, 8728 in Abo vs. Oma, and 3557 in Ret vs. Oma. For the DMA, 204 microbial taxa were differentially abundant in Rum vs. Abo, 204 in Rum vs. Oma, 126 in Rum vs. Ret, 190 in Abo vs. Ret, 174 in Abo vs. Oma, and in 159 Ret vs Oma. On the sPLS-DA analysis, C clusters differently from the other treatments, showing that animals that received BE and PE presented changes in the microbial structure community in almost all the stomach chambers. However, the Abo clusters differently from the all the other stomach chambers, regardless of treatment. We also found a strong microbial signature on the Abo of the BE and PE, with six microbial taxa related to the Abo of BE, and six related to PE. Our study provides evidence that microbial inoculation affects SC-T and SC-M of all the stomach chambers. However, the microbiota on the Abo differs from the other chambers, regardless of the treatment received.