sheep (Ovis aries) rumen Metagenome

Six different lignocellulosic biomasses including camelthorn (Alhagi persarum, AP), common reed (Phragmites australis, CR), date palm (Phoenix dactylifera, DP), kochia (Kochia scoparia, KS), rice straw (Oryza sativa, RS), and Salicornia (Salicornia persica, SC) were selected for in sacco rumen incubation and degradation analysis. Three adult male fistulated Shal (Iranian native) sheep of body weight between 62-68 kg were used for the study. The sampling was done after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after incubation in sheep rumen. The objective of this study was to identify fibrolytic microorganisms potentially important to fiber degradation in the sheep rumen and to compare their community attached to forages of varying level of digestibility in the rumen. After microbial dissociation and DNA purification, 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons (V3 and V4 region; a 460 bp fragment) were sequenced using Illumina Miseq 300PE which was conducted by Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, South Korea).