Gene network analysis identifies rumen epithelial processes perturbed by diet and correlated with methane production and yield.

Abstract

Ruminants are major contributors to the greenhouse gas, methane (CH4), contributing up to 14% of the anthropogenic contribution to global methane. Since CH4 is produced by the rumen Archaea from H2 and CO2 from bacterial fermentation of ingested feed, studies for mitigating CH4 have focused on suppressing rumen microbial methanogenesis. However, CH4 yield (CH4 production per unit of dry matter intake) has a heritable component; one possible mechanism is host-mediated changes in rumen flow rate. To identify signals of the genetic mechanism for variation in CH4 yield in the rumen wall, we sequenced mRNAs of full-depth rumen wall tissue from 24 female sheep from an experiment conducted at AgRes..