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Abstract Bison have a demonstrated ability to thrive on low-quality forage, an attribute that distinguishes them from their domestic ruminant counterparts. This could be attributed to the capability of their rumen symbiotic microorganisms in extracting more nutrients out of plant biomass. To gain further insight into the role of the bison microbiome in this beneficial adaptation, the primary objective of this study was to determine the diversity and composition of ruminal bacteria in bison fed poor versus good quality forage-based diets. Ruminal content was collected by stomach tubing from 25 bison heifers fed good quality forage (GQG) during the summer (last week of June 2023) at the McGinley Ranch (Gordon, Nebraska, USA). The same individuals were then transitioned to low quality hay (PQG) in pen confinement for approximately 4 to 5 wk before resampling. Data generated from Illumina MiSeq (2×300) sequencing of PCR amplicons targeting the V1-V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene were analyzed using a combination of custom Perl scripts, and publicly available software (Mothur v. 1. 40, RDP classifier and NCBI Blast). Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) showed a clear distinction in bacterial composition between the two types of forages (Figure 1). Further analysis of species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was performed, and a total of 78, 808 OTUs were identified across all samples. From the 20 most highly represented OTUs, the respective abundance of twelve OTUs showed significant differences between the two forage types (Kruskal-Wallis’s sum-rank test; P 0. 05). For example, OTUs SDBb-00014 (µGQG = 1. 06% vs µPQG = 0. 19%), and SDBb-00049 (µGQG = 0. 98% vs µPQG = 0. 08%) showed significant decreases in abundance when animals switched to PQG. Conversely, OTUs SDBb-00071 (µGQG = 0. 2% vs µPQG = 2. 71%), SDBb-00049 (µGQG = 0. 68% vs µPQG = 1. 67%) and OTUs SDBb-00148 (µGQG = 0. 19% vs µPQG = 1. 40%) exhibited a significant increase in abundance in response to the forage transition. Notably, only one of the assessed OTUs, SDBb-00071, showed high sequence identity to its closest valid relative, Fibrobacter succinogenes (98. 41%). In contrast, most of the other highly represented OTUs were found to be very dissimilar to known species, suggesting that they might represent novel or currently uncharacterized bacterial species (Table 1). Together, these results demonstrate the significant impact of variations in nutritional value and forage quality on the composition of rumen bacterial communities in the North American bison. Poor forage quality appeared to favor bacterial species such as Fibrobacter succinogenes, known for its cellulolytic capabilities, presumably because of its greater efficiency in breaking down more resistant plant cell walls. Its ability and that of other abundant OTUs to efficiently convert plant fibers into assimilable nutrients is likely critical in allowing bison to perform better on poor-quality forage compared with domesticated ruminants.
Rueda et al. (Wed,) studied this question.