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Ruminal cellulolytic bacteria and protozoa from bison, cattle-bison hybrids, and cattle fed three alfalfa-corn diets.

Ruminal cellulolytic bacteria and protozoa and in vitro digestibility of alfalfa fiber fractions were compared among bison, bison hybrids, and crossbed cattle (five each) when they were fed alfalfa and corn in a ratio of 100:0, 75:25, and 50:50, respectively. The total number of viable bacteria (2.16 x 10(9) to 5.44 x 10(9)/ml of ruminal fluid) and the number of cellulolytic bacteria (3.74 x 10(7) to 10.9 x 10(7)/ml) were not different among groups of animals fed each diet. The genera of protozoa in all of the animal groups were similar; however, when either the 100:0 or 50:50 diet was used the percentage of Entodinium sp. was lower and the percentage of Diplodiniinae was higher (P less than 0.05) in bison than in bison hybrids or cattle. Bacteroides succinogenes made up the largest number of cellulolytic isolates from bison (58 and 36%, respectively, on the 100:0 and 75:25 diets), which were more numerous (P less than 0.05) than those from bison hybrids (36 and 12%) and cattle (33 and 18%). This was offset by a lower number of cellulolytic Butyrivibrio isolates. The numbers of Ruminococcus albus and R. flavefaciens isolates, in general, were similar among the bovid species, although R. flavefaciens generally made up less than 10% of the cellulolytic isolates. In vitro digestibility coefficients were greater (P less than 0.05) for the bison when the 75:25 diet was used and similar for the other two diets. The concentration of ruminal volatile fatty acids was larger (P less than 0.05) in bison than in bison hybrids and cattle when the 50:50 diet was used.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Ammonia↗

Inducible bacteriophages from ruminal bacteria.

The incidence of temperate bacteriophage in a wide range of ruminal bacteria was investigated by means of induction with mitomycin C. Supernatant liquid from treated cultures was examined for phagelike particles by using transmission electron microscopy. Of 38 ruminal bacteria studied, nine organisms (23.7%) representing five genera (Eubacteria, Bacteroides, Butyrivibrio, Ruminococcus, and Streptococcus) produced phagelike particles. Filamentous particles from Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens are the first of this morphological type reported from ruminal bacteria. All of the other particles obtained possessed polyhedral heads and long, noncontractile tails (group B-type phage). The limited range of morphological types produced by mitomycin C induction cannot yet account for the much wider range of types found in ruminal contents by direct examination. The presence of viral genetic material in a significant percentage of the bacteria tested, as well as in a range of different genera, indicates that viral genetic material may be a normal constituent of the genome of appreciable numbers of ruminal bacteria.

Animals↗

Improved assay for quantitating adherence of ruminal bacteria to cellulose.

A quantitative technique suitable for the determination of adherence of ruminal bacteria to cellulose was developed. This technique employs adherence of cells to cellulose disks and alleviates the problem of nonspecific cell entrapment within cellulose particles. By using this technique, it was demonstrated that the adherence of Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD1 to cellulose was inhibited by formaldehyde, methylcellulose, and carboxymethyl cellulose. Adherence was unaffected by acid hydrolysates of methylcellulose, glucose, and cellobiose.

Animals↗

Antigenic nature of the chloride-stimulated cellobiosidase and other cellulases of Fibrobacter succinogenes subsp. succinogenes S85 and related fresh isolates.

Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to the Cl-stimulated cellobiosidase of Fibrobacter succinogenes subsp. succinogenes S85 reacted with numerous proteins of both higher and lower molecular weights from F. succinogenes subsp. succinogenes S85, but not with Escherichia coli proteins, and only one protein each from Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and Ruminococcus albus. Different profiles were observed for Western blots (immunoblots) of peptide digests of both the purified enzyme from F. succinogenes and immunoreactive proteins of higher and lower molecular weights, demonstrating that they were different proteins. Therefore, F. succinogenes appeared to produce numerous proteins with one or more common antigenic determinants. However, with the exception of Cl-stimulated cellobiosidase, none were cellulases that have been characterized. An affinity-purified polyclonal antibody to Cl-stimulated cellobiosidase reacted with numerous proteins in cells of each of three fresh isolates of F. succinogenes subsp. succinogenes and one of F. succinogenes subsp. elongata when analyzed by Western blotting. Antibodies to periplasmic cellodextrinase, endoglucanase 2 (EG2), and EG3, when reacted in Western blots with the various cellulases, including Cl-stimulated cellobiosidase, revealed limited antigenic similarity among the different proteins and none with either B. fibrisolvens or R. albus proteins. The periplasmic cellodextrinase antibody reacted with an antigen with a size corresponding to cellodextrinase in each of the three F. succinogenes subsp. succinogenes isolates but not with any antigens from the F. succinogenes subsp. elongata isolate. The anti-EG2 antibody reacted with single antigens in each of the four isolates, while the anti-EG3 antibody reacted with only one of the four isolates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Bacteroides↗

Adhesion of cellulolytic ruminal bacteria to barley straw.

Adhesion of the cellulolytic ruminal bacteria Ruminococcus flavefaciens and Fibrobacter succinogenes to barley straw was measured by incubating bacterial suspensions with hammer-milled straw for 30 min, filtering the mixtures through sintered glass filters, and measuring the optical densities of the filtrates. Maximum adhesion of both species occurred at pH 6.0 and during mid- to late-exponential phase. Adhesion was saturable at 33 and 23 mg (dry weight) g of straw for R. flavefaciens and F. succinogenes, respectively. Methyl cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose inhibited adhesion by 24 to 33%. Competition between species was determined by measuring characteristic cell-associated enzyme activities in filtrates of mixtures incubated with straw; p-nitrophenyl-beta-d-lactopyranoside hydrolysis was used as a marker for F. succinogenes, while either beta-xylosidase or carboxymethyl cellulase was used for R. flavefaciens, depending on the other species present. R. flavefaciens had no influence on F. succinogenes adhesion, and F. succinogenes had only a minor (<20%) effect on R. flavefaciens adhesion. The noncellulolytic ruminal bacteria Bacteroides ruminicola and Selenomonas ruminantium had no influence on adhesion of either cellulolytic species, although these organisms also adhered to the straw. We concluded that R. flavefaciens and F. succinogenes have separate, specific adhesion sites on barley straw that are not obscured by competition with non-cellulolytic species.

Journal Article↗

Differential fermentation of cellulose allomorphs by ruminal cellulolytic bacteria.

In addition to its usual native crystalline form (cellulose I), cellulose can exist in a variety of alternative crystalline forms (allomorphs) which differ in their unit cell dimensions, chain packing schemes, and hydrogen bonding relationships. We prepared, by various chemical treatments, four different alternative allomorphs, along with an amorphous (noncrystalline) cellulose which retained its original molecular weight. We then examined the kinetics of degradation of these materials by two species of ruminal bacteria and by inocula from two bovine rumens. Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 and Fibrobacter succinogenes S85 were similar to one another in their relative rates of digestion of the different celluloses, which proceeded in the following order: amorphous > III(I) > IV(I) > III(II) > I > II. Unlike F. succinogenes, R. flavefaciens did not degrade cellulose II, even after an incubation of 3 weeks. Comparisons of the structural features of these allomorphs with their digestion kinetics suggest that degradation is enhanced by skewing of adjacent sheets in the microfibril, but is inhibited by intersheet hydrogen bonding and by antiparallelism in adjacent sheets. Mixed microflora from the bovine rumens showed in vitro digestion rates quite different from one another and from those of both of the two pure bacterial cultures, suggesting that R. flavefaciens and F. succinogenes (purportedly among the most active of the cellulolytic bacteria in the rumen) either behave differently in the ruminal ecosystem from the way they do in pure culture or did not play a major role in cellulose digestion in these ruminal samples.

Journal Article↗

Utilization of xylooligosaccharides by selected ruminal bacteria.

The ability of ruminal bacteria to utilize xylooligosaccharides was examined. Xylooligosaccharides were prepared by partially hydrolyzing oat spelt xylan in phosphoric acid. This substrate solution was added (0.2%, wt/vol) to a complex medium containing yeast extract and Trypticase that was inoculated with individual species of ruminal bacteria, and growth and utilization were monitored over time. All of the xylanolytic bacteria examined were able to utilize this oligosaccharide mixture as a growth substrate. Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, Eubacterium ruminantium, and Ruminococcus albus used xylooligosaccharides and whole, unhydrolyzed xylan to similar extents, while Prevotella ruminicola used twice as much xylooligosaccharides as xylan (76 versus 34%). Strains of Selenomonas ruminantium were the only nonxylanolytic species that were able to grow on xylooligosaccharides. The ability of individual S. ruminantium strains to utilize xylooligosaccharides was correlated with the presence of xylosidase and arabinosidases activities.

Animals↗

Inhibition of ruminal cellulose fermentation by extracts of the perennial legume cicer milkvetch (Astragalus cicer).

Cicer milkvetch (Astragalus cicer L.) is a perennial legume used as a pasture or rangeland plant for ruminants. A study was undertaken to determine whether reported variations in its ruminal digestibility may be related to the presence of an antinutritive material. In vitro fermentation of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of cicer milkvetch by mixed rumen microflora was poorer than was the fermentation of NDF in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Fermentation of cicer milkvetch NDF was improved by preextraction of the ground herbage with water for 3 h at 39 degrees C. Such water extracts selectively inhibited in vitro fermentation of pure cellulose by mixed ruminal microflora and by pure cultures of the ruminal bacteria Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 and Fibrobacter succinogenes S85. Inhibition of the cellulose fermentation by mixed ruminal microflora was dependent upon the concentration of cicer milkvetch extract and was overcome upon prolonged incubation. Pure cultures exposed to the extract did not recover from inhibition, even after long incubation times, unless the inhibitory agent was removed (viz., by dilution of inhibited cultures into fresh medium). The extract did not affect the fermentation of cellobiose by R. flavefaciens but did cause some inhibition of cellobiose fermentation by F. succinogenes. Moreover, the extracts did not inhibit hydrolysis of crystalline cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, or p-nitrophenylcellobioside by supernatants of these pure cultures of cellulolytic bacteria or by a commercial cellulase preparation from the fungus Trichoderma reesei. The agent caused cellulose-adherent cells to detach from cellulose fibers, suggesting that the agent may act, at least in part, by disrupting the glycocalyx necessary for adherence to, and rapid digestion of, cellulose.

Animals↗

Digestion of herring by indigenous bacteria in the minke whale forestomach.

Northeastern Atlantic minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) have a multichambered stomach system which includes a nonglandular forestomach resembling that of ruminants. Bacteria from the forestomachs of herring-eating whales were enumerated and isolated in an anaerobic rumen-like culture medium (M8W medium). The total viable population of anaerobic bacteria ranged from 73 x 10 to 145 x 10/ml of forestomach fluid (n = 4). Lactobacillus spp. (19.7%), Streptococcus spp. (35.9%), and Ruminococcus spp. (12.8%) were the most common of the bacterial strains (n = 117) isolated by use of M8W medium from the forestomach fluid population of two minke whales. Most of the isolates stained gram positive (93.2%), 62.4% were cocci, and all strains were strictly anaerobic. The population of lipolytic bacteria in one animal, enumerated by use of a selective lipid medium, constituted 89.7% of the viable population. The total viable population of anaerobic bacteria in freshly caught and homogenized herring (Clupea harengus) ranged from 56.7 to 95.0 cells per gram of homogenized prey (n = 3) when M8W medium was used. Pediococcus spp. (30.6%) and Aerococcus spp. (25.0%) were most common of the bacterial strains (n = 72) isolated from the homogenized herring. Most of the bacterial strains were gram positive (80.6%), and 70.8% were cocci. Unlike the forestomach bacterial population, as many as 61.1% of the strains from the herring were facultatively anaerobic. All bacterial strains isolated from the prey had phenotypic patterns different from those of strains isolated from the dominant bacterial population in the forestomach, indicating that the forestomach microbiota is indigenous. Scanning electron microscopic examinations revealed large numbers of bacteria, surrounded by a glycocalyx, attached to partly digested food particles in the forestomach. These data support the hypothesis that symbiotic microbial digestion occurs in the forestomach and that the bacteria are indigenous to minke whales.

Journal Article↗

A xylan hydrolase gene cluster in Prevotella ruminicola B(1)4: sequence relationships, synergistic interactions, and oxygen sensitivity of a novel enzyme with exoxylanase and beta-(1,4)-xylosidase activities.

Two genes concerned with xylan degradation were found to be closely linked in the ruminal anaerobe Prevotella ruminicola B(1)4, being separated by an intergenic region of 75 nucleotides. xynA is shown to encode a family F endoxylanase of 369 amino acids, including a putative amino-terminal signal peptide. xynB encodes an enzyme of 319 amino acids, with no obvious signal peptide, that shows 68% amino acid identity with the xsa product of Bacteroides ovatus and 31% amino acid identity with a beta-xylosidase from Clostridium stercorarium; together, these three enzymes define a new family of beta-(1,4)-glycosidases. The activity of the cloned P. ruminicola xynB gene product, but not that of the xynA gene product, shows considerable sensitivity to oxygen. Studied under anaerobic conditions, the XynB enzyme was found to act as an exoxylanase, releasing xylose from substrates including xylobiose, xylopentaose, and birch wood xylan, but was relatively inactive against oat spelt xylan. A high degree of synergy (up to 10-fold stimulation) was found with respect to the release of reducing sugars from oat spelt xylan when XynB was combined with the XynA endoxylanase from P. ruminicola B(1)4 or with endoxylanases from the cellulolytic rumen anaerobe Ruminococcus flavefaciens 17. Pretreatment with a fungal arabinofuranosidase also stimulated reducing-sugar release from xylans by XynB. In P. ruminicola the XynA and XynB enzymes may act sequentially in the breakdown of xylan.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Utilization of individual cellodextrins by three predominant ruminal cellulolytic bacteria.

Growth of the ruminal bacteria Fibrobacter succinogenes S85, Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1, and R. albus 7 followed Monod kinetics with respect to concentrations of individual pure cellodextrins (cellobiose, cellotriose, cellotetraose, cellopentaose, and cellohexaose). Under the conditions tested, R. flavefaciens FD-1 possesses the greatest capacity to compete for low concentrations of these cellodextrins.

Animals↗

Molecular beacons: trial of a fluorescence-based solution hybridization technique for ecological studies with ruminal bacteria.

Molecular beacons are fluorescent probes developed for solution rather than membrane hybridization. We have investigated the utility of these probes to study rumen microbial ecology. Two cellulolytic species, Ruminococcus albus and Fibrobacter succinogenes, were tested. Membrane and solution hybridizations gave similar results in competition experiments with cocultures of R. albus 8 and F. succinogenes S85.

Animals↗

Activity of H(+)-ATPase in ruminal bacteria with special reference to acid tolerance.

Batch culture experiments showed that permeabilized cells and membranes of Ruminococcus albus and Fibrobacter succinogenes, acid-intolerant celluloytic bacteria, have only one-fourth to one-fifth as much H(+)-ATPase as Megasphaera elsdenii and Streptococcus bovis, which are relatively acid tolerant. Even in the cells grown in continuous culture at pH 7.0, the acid-intolerant bacteria contained less than half as much H(+)-ATPase as the acid-tolerant bacteria. The amounts of H(+)-ATPase in the acid-tolerant bacteria were increased by more than twofold when the cells were grown at the lowest pH permitting growth, whereas little increase was observed in the case of the acid-intolerant bacteria. These results indicate that the acid-intolerant bacteria not only contain smaller amounts of H(+)-ATPase at neutral pH but also have a lower capacity to enhance the level of H(+)-ATPase in response to low pH than the acid-tolerant bacteria. In addition, the H(+)-ATPases of the acid-intolerant bacteria were more sensitive to low pH than those of the acid-tolerant bacteria, although the optimal pHs were similar.

Animals↗

Formation of hyodeoxycholic acid from muricholic acid and hyocholic acid by an unidentified gram-positive rod termed HDCA-1 isolated from rat intestinal microflora.

From the rat intestinal microflora we isolated a gram-positive rod, termed HDCA-1, that is a member of a not previously described genomic species and that is able to transform the 3alpha,6beta, 7beta-trihydroxy bile acid beta-muricholic acid into hyodeoxycholic acid (3alpha,6alpha-dihydroxy acid) by dehydroxylation of the 7beta-hydroxy group and epimerization of the 6beta-hydroxy group into a 6alpha-hydroxy group. Other bile acids that were also transformed into hyodeoxycholic acid were hyocholic acid (3alpha, 6alpha,7alpha-trihydroxy acid), alpha-muricholic acid (3alpha,6beta, 7alpha-trihydroxy acid), and omega-muricholic acid (3alpha,6alpha, 7beta-trihydroxy acid). The strain HDCA-1 could not be grown unless a nonconjugated 7-hydroxylated bile acid and an unidentified growth factor produced by a Ruminococcus productus strain that was also isolated from the intestinal microflora were added to the culture medium. Germfree rats selectively associated with the strain HDCA-1 plus a bile acid-deconjugating strain and the growth factor-producing R. productus strain converted beta-muricholic acid almost completely into hyodeoxycholic acid.

Animals↗

Percent G+C profiling accurately reveals diet-related differences in the gastrointestinal microbial community of broiler chickens.

Broiler chickens from eight commercial farms in Southern Finland were analyzed for the structure of their gastrointestinal microbial community by a nonselective DNA-based method, percent G+C-based profiling. The bacteriological impact of the feed source and in-farm whole-wheat amendment of the diet was assessed by percent G+C profiling. Also, a phylogenetic 16S rRNA gene (rDNA)-based study was carried out to aid in interpretation of the percent G+C profiles. This survey showed that most of the 16S rDNA sequences found could not be assigned to any previously known bacterial genus or they represented an unknown species of one of the taxonomically heterogeneous genera, such as Ruminococcus or Clostridium. The data from bacterial community profiling were analyzed by t-test, multiple linear regression, and principal-component statistical approaches. The percent G+C profiling method with appropriate statistical analyses detected microbial community differences smaller than 10% within each 5% increment of the percent G+C profiles. Diet turned out to be the strongest determinant of the cecal bacterial community structure. Both the source of feed and local feed amendment changed the bacteriological profile significantly, whereas profiles of individual farms with identical feed regimens hardly differed from each other. This suggests that the management of typical Finnish farms is relatively uniform or that hygiene on the farm, in fact, has little impact on the structure of the cecal bacterial community. Therefore, feed compounders should have a significant role in the modulation of gut microflora and consequently in prevention of gastrointestinal disorders in farm animals.

Animal Feed↗

16S ribosomal DNA terminal restriction fragment pattern analysis of bacterial communities in feces of rats fed Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM.

16S ribosomal DNA terminal restriction fragment patterns from rat fecal samples were analyzed to track the dynamics of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and discern bacterial populations that changed during feeding with NCFM. Lactobacillus johnsonii and Ruminococcus flavefaciens were tentatively identified as such bacterial populations. The presence of L. johnsonii was confirmed by isolation from feces.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗