Buccal swabbing as a noninvasive method to determine bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microbial community structures in the rumen.

ABSTRACT: Analysis of rumen microbial community structure based on small-subunit rRNA marker genes in metagenomic DNA samples provides important insights into the dominant taxa present in the rumen and allows assessment of community differences between individuals or in response to treatments applied to ruminants. However, natural animal-to-animal variation in rumen microbial community composition can limit the power of a study considerably, especially when only subtle differences are expected between treatment groups. Thus, trials with large numbers of animals may be necessary to overcome this variation. Because ruminants pass large amounts of rumen material to their oral cavities when they chew their cud, oral samples may contain good representations of the rumen microbiota and be useful in lieu o

SUBMITTER: Kittelmann S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4592876 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature