Yanfen Cheng

Nanjing Agricultural University | NAU · College of Animal Science and Technology

This study compared the growth performance, serum biochemical indicators, rumen fermentation parameters, rumen bacterial structure, and fecal bacterial structure of cattle and yaks fed for two months and given a feed containing concentrate of a roughage ratio of 7:3 on a dry matter basis. Compared with cattle, yak showed better growth performance....

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of natural co-culture of anaerobic fungi and methanogens on the methane production and lignocellulosic degradation of waste from rice, corn and sugarcane. Hu sheep rumen digesta was used to develop a natural co-culture of anaerobic fungus and methanogen. The substrates used in this study were...

This study compared growth performance, serum biochemical indicators, rumen fermentation parameters, rumen bacterial structure, and fecal bacterial structure of cattle and yaks, fed for two months, given a feed containing concentrate to roughage ratio of 7: 3 on dry matter basis. Compared with cattle, yak showed better growth performance. The serum...

Background Providing high-quality roughage is crucial for the development of ruminant production because it is an essential component of their feed. Our previous study showed that feeding bio-fermented rice straw (BF) improved the feed intake and weight gain of sheep. However, it remains unclear why feeding BF to sheep increased their feed intake a...

Background The nutrient availability of roughages could affect the dietary utilization efficiency of ruminants even in isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets. Here, we analyzed the bacterial composition and their metabolic pathways in the gastrointestinal tracts (GITs) of Hu sheep fed with wheat straw (WS) instead of alfalfa (AL) in isocaloric and iso...

The microbial decomposition and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass present in the plant tissues are driven by a series of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) acting in concert. As the non-catalytic domains widely found in the modular CAZymes, carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) are intimately associated with catalytic domains (CDs) that effec...

Background Lignocellulose biomass is the most abundant and renewable material in nature. The objectives of this study were to characterize two endoglucanases TrepCel3 and TrepCel4, and determine the effect of the combination of them (1.2 mg TrepCel3, 0.8 mg TrepCel4) on in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics. In this study, three nature lignoc...

To efficiently use lignocellulosic materials in ruminants, it is crucial to explore effective enzymes, especially bifunctional enzymes. In this study, a novel stable bifunctional cellulase-xylanase protein from buffalo rumen metagenome was expressed and characterized, CelXyn2. The enzyme displayed optimal activity at pH 6.0 and 45 °C. The residual...

Swainsonine induced liver inflammation in livestock; however, the underlying mechanisms, especially the role of bile acids (BAs), in the pathogenesis remained elusive. Here, our results showed that swainsonine induced hepatic inflammation via changing BA metabolism and gut microbiota in mice. Swainsonine significantly upregulated the levels of deox...

Feruloyl esterase (FAE; EC 3.1.1.73) cleaves the ester bond between ferulic acid (FA) and sugar, to assist the release of FAs and degradation of plant cell walls. In this study, two FAEs (Fae13961 and Fae16537) from the anaerobic fungus Pecoramyces sp. F1 were heterologously expressed in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris). Compared with Fae16537, Fae139...

To ensile rice straw (ENRS), a combination of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), consisting of Lactobacillus plantarum, L. buchneri and Pediococcus acidilactici at a ratio of 2:1:1 was added to rice straw (RS), and stored for 42 days at room temperature. We examined: 1) the nutritive quality of ENRS; 2) in vitro rumen fermentation parameters and microbiot...

Yaks living on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau for a long time have evolved a series of mechanisms to adapt to the unique geographical environment and climate characteristics of the plateau. Compared with other ruminants, yaks have higher energy utilization and metabolic efficiency. This paper presents possible mechanisms responsible for the efficient...

This study examined the effect of the ratio of dietary metabolizable energy (MJ) to nitrogen (g) content (ME:N) on average daily gain (ADG), blood biochemical indices, rumen fermentation parameters, and rumen bacterial community in yaks. Thirty-six male yaks, aged 2–3 years, were divided into three groups and received a ME:N ratio of 0.42 (HY), 0.3...

Melilotus officinalis is an important forage and green manure crop. There is a high degree of genetic diversity within species of M. officinalis. Despite the forage potential and the ability of nitrogen fixation, it has not been propagated in recent years because its high coumarin content. As a forage crop, the breeding goal of M. officinalis was m...

This study aimed to investigate the changes in the blood metabolic profiles of grazing yaks during the cold season to reveal their physiological status and seek the nutrients needed to be supplemented. Six castrated yaks (3 years old) with 166.8 kg (standard deviation = 5.3) of liveweight grazed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau were used as experimen...

Perinatal cows suffer serious physiological stress and energy deficiency. Phytosterols have bioactive functions for gut microbes.

Establishing a solid taxonomic framework is crucial for enabling discovery and documentation efforts. This ensures effective communication between scientists as well as reproducibility of results between laboratories, and facilitates the exchange and preservation of biological material. Such framework can only be achieved by establishing clear crit...

This study aims to obtain anaerobic fungi from the rumen and fecal samples and investigates their potential for lignocellulosic bioconversion. Multiple anaerobic strains were isolated from rumen contents (CR1–CR21) and fecal samples (CF1–CF10) of Bactrian camel using the Hungate roll tube technique. After screening for fiber degradability, strains...

A novel, integrated process for the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is reported which involves simultaneous pretreatment, saccharification and fermentation using environmentally friendly technologies. The lignocellulosic biomass (8.33 g/L rice straw) was pretreated and saccharified with the anaerobic fungus Pecoramyces sp. F1, wh...

Although the enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in diverse organic soils have been explored, understanding of the ecological processes governing the composition of ARGs in long-term organically fertilized soils still remains limited across typical agricultural regions. Thus, the distribution and assembly of ARG profile in three typica...

Anaerobic fungi, though low in abundance in rumen, play an important role in the degradation of forage for herbivores. When only anaerobic fungi exist in the fermentation system, the continuous accumulation of metabolites (e.g., hydrogen (H2) and formate) generated from their special metabolic organelles—the hydrogenosome—inhibits the enzymatic rea...

Bio-fermentation technology has been successfully developed for ensiling rice straw; however, its effects on the particle-attached microbial community remains unknown. Therefore, rice straw (RS) and bio-fermented rice straw (BFRS) were used as substrates for in vitro rumen fermentation to investigate the effect of bio-fermentation on particle-attac...

A considerable amount of trimethylamine (TMA) is likely generated in the rumen; however, its metabolism is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of Methanomassiliicoccales (Mmc) in TMA metabolism in the rumen of dairy cows. Three experiments, two rumen in vitro fermentation trials and one dairy cow in vivo trial, were conducted. F...

Colonization and development of the gut microbiome is a crucial consideration for optimizing the health and performance of livestock animals. This is mainly attributed to the fact that dietary and management practices greatly influence the gut microbiota, subsequently leading to changes in nutrient utilization and immune response. A favorable micro...

Anaerobic fungi in the digestive tract of herbivores are one of the critical types of fiber-degrading microorganisms present in the rumen. They degrade lignocellulosic materials using unique rhizoid structures and a diverse range of fiber-degrading enzymes, producing metabolic products such as H2/CO2, formate, lactate, acetate, and ethanol. Methano...

The anaerobic gut fungi (Neocallimastigomycota), first described almost 50 years ago, hold extraordinary potential for biotechnology. Anaerobic fungi could contribute to bioenergy and bio-based chemical production via their ability to degrade lignocellulose, may enhance animal health and production, and are now being revealed to have interesting bi...

Background: Trimethylamine (TMA) is the precursor of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), which has been known to promote human cardiovascular disease. Methanomassiliicoccales (Mmc), TMA-utilizing methanogens, may function as a TMA barrier for the host in the rumen. This study aimed to investigate the role of Mmc in rumen TMA elimination and the effect o...

In this study, rumen content was used to obtain three enrichments of anaerobic fungi and methanogens (F + M enrichment), bacteria and methanogens (B + M enrichment), and whole rumen content (WRC enrichment), to evaluate their respective ability to degrade lignocellulose and produce methane. Among the treatments, F + M enrichment elicited the strong...

To determine ways to improve the utilization of corn stover, this study investigated methane production from different parts of corn stover using a simple co-culture of an anaerobic fungus (Pecoramyces species) and methanogen (Methanobrevibacter species). The simple co-culture was incubated with the stem pith, leaf blade, or stem bark of corn stove...

Objective: Reveal the metabolic shift in the fungus co-cultured with the methanogen (Methanobrevibacter thaueri). Methods: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to investigate the metabolites in anaerobic fungal (Pecoramyces sp. F1) cells and the supernatant. Results: A total of 104 and 102 metabolites were detected in the fung...

The effects of nitroglycerine (NG) on the rumen methane emission, fermentation, and microbial community of Hu sheep were investigated. Eight sheep were fed NG (100 mg/head/day); another eight sheep served as controls. NG decreased methane emission of Hu sheep by ~ 19.3% (P < 0.05) without adversely affecting the production performance or rumen ferm...

In this study, the effects of a syntrophic methanogen on the growth of Pecoramyces sp. F1 was investigated by characterizing fermentation profiles, as well as functional genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analysis. The estimated genome size, GC content, and protein coding regions of strain F1 are 106.83 Mb, 16.07%, and 23.54%, respectively. Com...

The cecum plays an important role in the feed fermentation of ruminants. However, information is very limited regarding the cecal microbiota and their methane production. In the present study, the cecal content from twelve local Chinese goats, fed with either a hay diet (0% grain) or a high-grain diet (71.5% grain), were used to investigate the bac...

Anaerobic fungi (phylum Neocallimastigomycota), an early branching family of fungi, are commonly encountered in the digestive tract of mammalian herbivores. To date, isolates from ten described genera have been reported, and several novel taxonomic groupings are detected using culture-independent molecular methods. Anaerobic fungi are recognized as...

This study used Miseq pyrosequencing and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the temporal changes in the bacterial community tightly attached to wheat straw in the cow rumen. The wheat straw was incubated in the rumens and samples were recovered at various times. The wheat straw degradation exhibited three phases: the first degradation phas...

The aim of this study was to improve the utilization of rice straw as forage in ruminants by investigating the degradation pattern of rice straw in the dairy cow rumen. Ground up rice straw was incubated in situ in the rumens of three Holstein cows over a period of 72 h. The rumen fluid at 0 h and the rice straw at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48, and...

Anaerobic fungi (phylum Neocallimastigomycota) are common inhabitants of the digestive tract of mammalian herbivores, and in the rumen, can account for up to 20% of the microbial biomass. Anaerobic fungi play a primary role in the degradation of lignocellulosic plant material. They also have a syntrophic interaction with methanogenic archaea, which...

Anaerobic fungi are potent lignocellulose degraders, but have not yet been exploited in this capacity, largely owing to their poor metabolic characterization. In the current study, a time course of fermentation was conducted to study the effect of the co-cultured methanogens on xylose metabolism by anaerobic fungi. The fermentation end-products fro...

Rumen in vitro fermentation was used to evaluate the capacity of nitrooxy compounds to mitigate rumen methane production. The following three nitrooxy compounds, each with different molecular structures, were evaluated: 2,2-dimethyl-3-(nitrooxy) propanoic (DNP), N-[2-(Nitrooxy)ethyl]-3-pyridinecarboxamide (NPD), and nitroglycerin (NG). All three co...

Abstract Background The newly proposed methanogenic order ‘Methanomassiliicoccales’ is the second largest archaeal population in the rumen, second only to the Methanobrevibacter population. However, information is limited regarding the community of this new order in the rumen. Methods This study used real-time PCR and 454 pyrosequencing to explore...

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of increasing atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentration during crop growth on the rumen degradability of wheat straw. The experiment consisted of a control group (wheat plants grown with a mean temperature of 10.5 ℃ and a CO2 concentration of 413 μmol/mol) and three treatments: elevated C...

Although the scheme of metabolic pathways involved in the production of the major end products has been described, the dynamic profile of metabolites of anaerobic fungi co-cultured with methanogens is limited, especially for the intermediate metabolites. In the present study, the fermentation of the co-culture of Piromyces sp. F1 and Methanobreviba...

The quantification and community of bacteria in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract (stomach, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon and rectum) of red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) were examined by using real-time PCR and paired-end Illumina sequencing. The quantification of bacteria showed that the number of bacteria in jejunum and rectum was significantly lower...

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of shading during the grain filling stage on the nutritive value and in vitro digestibility of "Yangmai 15" wheat straw. Three shading levels (0%, 50% and 66%) and three shade duration periods (2,4 and 8 days) were compared. At harvest, the wheat straw was collected and stored for analysis of chem...

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of increased atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentration during crop growth on the chemical composition and in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics of wheat straw. The field experiment was carried out from November 2012 to June 2013 at Changshu (31°32′93″N, 120°41′88″E) agro-ecological...

Thirty-six healthy piglets (weighing 10 ± 1 kg; three animals per pen) were randomly allocated to two treatments: (i) a low protein diet (14% crude protein [CP]) supplemented with lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan (Group LP) and (ii) a normal protein diet (20% CP, Group NP), resulting in six replicate pens per treatment. One piglet from...

The study aimed to investigate the effects of gynosaponin on in vitro methanogenesis under different forage-concentrate ratios (F:C ratios). Experiment was conducted with two kinds of F:C ratios (F:C = 7:3 and F:C = 3:7) and gynosaponin addition (0 mg and 16 mg) in a 2×2 double factorial design. In the presence of gynosaponin, methane production an...

Objective: We studied the microbial interaction between anaerobic fungi and methanogens in the rumen of Holstein Cow. Methods: Co-cultures of anaerobic fungi with indigenously associated methanogen were isolated by Hungate roll-tube technique. The anaerobic fungi were identified by morphology and 4', 6 diamidino-2-phylindole nucleus staining and...

Two complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) clones encoding heat shock cognate 70 (HSC70) and inducible heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) were isolated from the liver of Wuchang bream (Megalobrama amblycephala Y.) using RT-PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). They were named Ma-HSC70 and Ma-HSP70, respectively. The cDNAs were 2336 and 22...

A molecular-based approach for anaerobic fungal community analysis was developed. The diversity of anaerobic fungi in the co-cultures with or without methanogens was analyzed by amplified ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis. Co-cultures of anaerobic fungi and methanogens were obtained from rumen digesta using anaerobic fungal medium and the additi...