G C A T T A C G G C A T genes Article The Effects of Artificially Dosed Adult Rumen Contents on Abomasum Transcriptome and Associated Microbial Community Structure in Calves Naren Gaowa 1 , Wenli Li 2,*, Brianna Murphy 2 and Madison S. Cox 3,4 1 State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Beijing Engineering Technology, Research Center of Raw Milk Quality and Safety Control, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian, Beijing 100193, China;
[email protected] 2 The Cell Wall Utilization and Biology Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service, US Dairy Forage Research Center, Madison, WI 53706, USA;
[email protected] 3 Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA;
[email protected] 4 Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-(608)-890-0056 Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the changes in abomasum transcriptome and the associated microbial community structure in young calves with artificially dosed, adult rumen contents. Eight young bull calves were randomly dosed with freshly extracted rumen contents from an adult cow (high efficiency (HE), n = 4), or sterilized rumen content (Con, n = 4). The dosing was administered within 3 days of birth, then at 2, 4, and 6 weeks following the initial dosing. Abomasum tissues were collected immediately after sacrifice at 8 weeks of age. Five genera (Tannerella, Desulfovibrio, Deinococcus, Leptotrichia, and Eubacterium; p < 0.05) showed significant difference in abundance Citation: Gaowa, N.; Li, W.; Murphy, between the treatments.