RT Journal
A1 Shi, Weibing
A1 Moon, Christina D.
A1 Leahy, Sinead C.
A1 Kang, Dongwan
A1 Froula, Jeff
A1 Kittelmann, Sandra
A1 Fan, Christina
A1 Deutsch, Samuel
A1 Gagic, Dragana
A1 Seedorf, Henning
A1 Kelly, William J.
A1 Atua, Renee
A1 Sang, Carrie
A1 Soni, Priya
A1 Li, Dong
A1 Pinares-Patiño, Cesar S.
A1 McEwan, John C.
A1 Janssen, Peter H.
A1 Chen, Feng
A1 Visel, Axel
A1 Wang, Zhong
A1 Attwood, Graeme T.
A1 Rubin, Edward M.
T1 Methane yield phenotypes linked to differential gene expression in the sheep rumen microbiome
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2014 
FD September 01 
VO 24 
IS 9 
SP 1517 
OP 1525 
DO 10.1101/gr.168245.113 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/24/9/1517.abstract 
AB Ruminant livestock represent the single largest anthropogenic source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, which is generated by methanogenic archaea residing in ruminant digestive tracts. While differences between individual animals of the same breed in the amount of methane produced have been observed, the basis for this variation remains to be elucidated. To explore the mechanistic basis of this methane production, we measured methane yields from 22 sheep, which revealed that methane yields are a reproducible, quantitative trait. Deep metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing demonstrated a similar abundance of methanogens and methanogenesis pathway genes in high and low methane emitters. However, transcription of methanogenesis pathway genes was substantially increased in sheep with high methane yields. These results identify a discrete set of rumen methanogens whose methanogenesis pathway transcription profiles correlate with methane yields and provide new targets for CH4 mitigation at the levels of microbiota composition and transcriptional regulation.