Exploring the Goat Rumen Microbiome from Seven Days to Two Years

Rumen microbial communities play important roles in feed conversion and the physiological development of the ruminants. Despite its significance, little is known about the rumen microbial communities at different life stages after birth. In this study, we characterized the rumen bacterial and the archaeal communities in 11 different age groups (7, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 360, 540 and 720 days old) of a crossbred F1 goats (n = 5 for each group) by using an Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. We found that the bacterial communities were mainly composed of Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria across all age groups. The relative abundance of Firmicutes was stable across all age groups. While changes in relative abundance were observed in Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, these two phyla reached a stable stage after weaning (day 90). Euryarchaeota (82%) and Thaumarchaeota (15%) were the dominant phyla of Archaea. Crenarchaeota was also observed, although at a very low relative abundance (0.68% at most). A clear age-related pattern was observed in the diversity of bacterial community with 59 OTUs associated with age. In contrast, no age-related OTU was observed in archaea. In conclusion, our results suggested that from 7 days to 2 years, the ruminal microbial community of our experimental goats underwent significant changes in response to the shift in age and diet.