Shedding light onto the causality forces of phenotypic expression in the holobiont organism

Ruminants have co-evolved with bacteria for >15 my. This symbiosis has formed one of the most complex and efficient natural bioreactors in the world – the rumen.

Oscar’s team analysed 450 cow rumens: DNA was prepared by ligation and sequenced in multiplex on the MinION, 12 samples per run. Microbes were classified using SqueezeMeta.

All microbial genes they found were associated with >14,000 KEGG pathways, and the microbes were classified into 7,046 genera and 14,624 species.

Higher abundance of ciliates and fungi caused more methane production – because more H2 produced from these organisms helps Archaea grow, and they produce methane.

What about the resistome? They identified 998 AMR genes, with resistance to antibiotics often used in veterinary treatments. They also found genes associated with resistance to antibiotics restricted for human use; ‘the question is how they got there’.