Characterisation and optimisation of the rumen microbiome

瘤胃微生物组的表征和优化

• 批准号: 2657335
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2657335
• 关键词: Characterisation; optimisation; rumen; microbiome

The rumen microbiome is arguably one of the most economically important microbiomes on the planet. Globally, there are over 1 billion cattle and other food-producing ruminants and they are of vital importance for food security, providing meat and dairy products to billions of humans. However, the current global food system fails to feed 10% of the 7 billion humans on the planet, and the population is set to exceed 9 billion in 2050 and 11 billion in 2100. As such, the FAO estimates that by 2050 meat production will need to increase by 76% and dairy production by 63%. At the same time we must reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. In short, we must produce more food using fewer resources.Understanding how ruminants convert their food into energy, and subsequently milk and muscle protein, is therefore of obvious importance. If we can improve the efficiency of food digestion by ruminants, we may be able to produce more food while using fewer resources, a key aim of improving global food security. The cow rumen is adapted for the breakdown of plant material into energy and nutrients, a task largely performed by enzymes encoded by the rumen microbiome. The rumen contains a microbial ecosystem in which a dense and complex mixture of bacteria, archaea, protozoa and fungi convert carbohydrates to short-chain, volatile fatty acids (VFAs).We have discovered thousands of novel Bacterial and Archaeal species in the cattle rumen, and we are able to predict their metabolic potential using computational techniques. However, full understanding of their role and behaviour in the rumen microbial ecosystem will require bringing these novel species into culture, and studying them in vitro and in vivo.In this PhD, you will (i) bring into culture important rumen microbial species, focusing on gaps in the current catalogue (there are an approximately 2,300 missing species; (ii) study these novel microbes in the lab in terms of their metabolic potential, and growth and behaviour on various substrates; (iii) build beneficial communities of microbes that mimic beneficial behaviour and study these communities using multi-omics techniques; (iv) test some of these communities in an animal trial to study their effect on important ruminant phenotypes

瘤胃微生物组可以说是地球上经济上最重要的微生物组之一。全球有超过 10 亿头牛和其他产食反刍动物，它们为数十亿人提供肉类和乳制品，对粮食安全至关重要。然而，目前的全球粮食系统无法养活地球上 70 亿人口中的 10%，而到 2050 年，人口将超过 90 亿，到 2100 年将超过 110 亿。因此，粮农组织估计，到 2050 年，肉类产量将需要增加 76%，乳制品产量需要增加 63%。与此同时，我们必须减少食品系统对环境的影响。简而言之，我们必须使用更少的资源生产更多的食物。因此，了解反刍动物如何将食物转化为能量，进而转化为牛奶和肌肉蛋白，显然非常重要。如果我们能够提高反刍动物消化食物的效率，我们也许能够用更少的资源生产更多的食物，这是改善全球粮食安全的一个关键目标。牛瘤胃适合将植物材料分解为能量和营养物质，这项任务主要由瘤胃微生物组编码的酶来完成。瘤胃包含一个微生物生态系统，其中细菌、古细菌、原生动物和真菌的密集而复杂的混合物将碳水化合物转化为短链挥发性脂肪酸 (VFA)。我们在牛瘤胃中发现了数千种新的细菌和古细菌物种，我们能够使用计算技术预测它们的代谢潜力。然而，要充分了解它们在瘤胃微生物生态系统中的作用和行为，需要将这些新物种引入培养，并在体外和体内研究它们。在本博士课程中，您将 (i) 将重要的瘤胃微生物物种引入培养，重点关注当前目录中的空白（大约有 2,300 个缺失物种；(ii) 在实验室中研究这些新型微生物的代谢潜力以及在各种基质上的生长和行为；(iii) 建立有益的微生物群落模仿有益行为并使用多组学技术研究这些群落；（iv）在动物试验中测试其中一些群落，以研究它们对重要反刍动物表型的影响；