Abstract
The ecology of the uncultured, but large and morphologically conspicuous, rumen bacterium Oscillospira spp. was studied. Oscillospira-specific 16S rRNA gene sequences were detected in North American domestic cattle, sheep from Australia and Japan, and Norwegian reindeer. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences obtained allowed definition of three operational taxonomic units within the Oscillospira clade. Consistent with this genetic diversity, we observed atypical smaller morphotypes by using an Oscillospira-specific fluorescence in situ hybridization probe. Despite the visual disappearance of typical large Oscillospira morphotypes, the presence of Oscillospira spp. was still detected by Oscillospira-specific PCR in the rumen of cattle and sheep. These observations suggest the broad presence of Oscillospira species in various rumen ecosystems with the level, and most likely the morphological form, dependent on diet. An ecological analysis based on enumeration of the morphologically conspicuous, large-septate form confirms that the highest counts are associated with the feeding of fresh forage diets to cattle and sheep and in two different subspecies of reindeer investigated.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 6808-6815 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Nov 2003 |
Bibliographical note
We thank Andrea Turner, Luke Burrow, and the farm staff at the Animal Research Institute, Yerongpilly, Queensland, Australia, for technical assistance during the sheep trial partially funded by the Australian Research Council. We are grateful to Svein Disch Mathiesen and Pål Vegar Storeheier for their assistance in sampling the reindeer and to the Departments of Electron Microscopy and Morphology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway, for assistance with the TEMs of reindeer Oscillospira.Funding
The reindeer project was supported by the Reindeer Husbandry Research Fund, the University of Tromsø, and the Norwegian Research Council. Research at the University of Illinois was supported by the Agricultural Research Station, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and by USDA-NRI Competitive Grants Program 42.0 (award 99-35206-7950).