Microbiability and heritability of deer seasonality traits

<p dir="ltr">Deer are seasonal animals that experience changes in growth and other traits throughout the year. Rumen microbial communities (RMC) are affected by diet and host genetics and have been shown to influence phenotypic traits. The aim of this project was to determine the variance explained by the rumen microbiome (microbiability), and the animals’ genetics (heritability) on seasonal growth rates and immune responses. Rumen contents from 630 Red Deer and Wapiti cross deer were collected, processed and sequenced to generate a RMC profile of the rumen microbiome. From the RMC, a microbial similarity matrix between individuals was constructed and used a as random effect matrix in a linear mixed model to estimate trait variation attributed to the RMC. This was compared to models using only genomics, and a joint model using both host genomics and the RMC. Estimates of microbiability and heritability for these traits were similar across models, where winter growth rate and log of carbohydrate larval antigen (LnCARLA) displayed negligible microbiability. This indicates that while the RMC explains a significant amount of variation in growth, it does not rank animals at times when feed intake and growth is low and has no association with disease resistance. Therefore, caution should be taken when using RMC for trait predictions in seasonal animals.</p>