Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (1): 20-31.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.01.003

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Rumen Bacteriophage in Ruminants: Metagenome Analytical Methods and Research Progress

WU Yicheng1,2, RAN Tao3*, ZHOU Chuanshe1,2*, TAN Zhiliang1,2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory for Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition Physiology and Metabolic Process, South Central Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China;
    2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    3. College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
  • Received:2021-06-02 Online:2022-01-23 Published:2022-01-26

Abstract: Viruses are ubiquitous to the gastrointestinal tracts of various types of animals, including the rumen of ruminants. The rumen is a dense and taxonomically diverse consortium of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, archaea and virus. Nowadays, most of the researches by multi-omics and bioinformatics have focused on rumen bacteria. Studies have shown that diet, environment and host genotype have great impact on the diversity and community structure of rumen bacteria; meanwhile, rumen bacteria also affect the host’s metabolism, growth performance and health status in turn. Compared with rumen bacteria, rumen phages have received relatively fewer attention. With the development of molecular biology technology, high-throughput sequencing has paved way for the study of virome. Many novel viruses in rumen have been discovered by viral metagenomics, which largely enriches the understanding of the diversity of rumen viruses. Starting from the concept of rumen phage, this review focused on the analytical methods including virus DNA extraction, sequencing and bioinformatics. Then discussed the virome analytical methods both in the rumen and other ecosystems, and finally summarized the application prospects of rumen virome research.

Key words: rumen, virus, bacteriophage, metagenomics, high-throughput sequencing

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