Genomic insights into the physiology of Quinella, an iconic uncultured rumen bacterium
Quinella is a genus of iconic rumen bacteria first reported in 1913. There are no cultures of these bacteria, and information on their physiology is scarce and contradictory. Increased abundance of Quinella was previously found in the rumens of some sheep that emit low amounts of methane (CH4) relative to their feed intake, but whether Quinella contributes to low CH4 emissions is not known. Here, we concentrate Quinella cells from sheep rumen contents, extract and sequence DNA, and reconstruct Quinella genomes that are >90% complete with as little as 0.20% contamination. Bioinformatic analyses of the encoded proteins indicate that lactate and propionate formation are major fermentation pathways. The presence of a gene encoding a potential uptake hydrogenase suggests that Quinella might be able to use free hydrogen (H2). None of the inferred metabolic pathways is predicted to produce H2, a major precursor of CH4, which is consistent with the lower CH4 emissions from those sheep with high abundances of this bacterium.
Funding
Teagasc Walsh Fellowship (Award 2012059)
New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (Grant A18658)
History
Rights statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Publication date
2022-10-20Project number
- Non revenue
Language
- English
Does this contain Māori information or data?
- No