How the Maternal Microbiota Affects Milk Quality and Progeny Health and Production: Can we Modulate it by Nutrition?
Since the discovery and elucidation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and its structure in the 1950s by Watson and colleagues (Watson and Crick, 1953, Feughelman et al., 1955, Wilkins, 1956) strategies and multiple technological innovations have been made in efforts to better understand the complexity and diversity of genomes in a variety of ecosystems, including those in the health and disease. The term metagenome was first described by Jo Handelsman in 1998 as “the genomes of the total microbiota found in nature” (Handelsman et al., 1998). More recently, with the development and application of high throughput sequencing methods in combination with the growing recognition of the importance of the microbial community a National Science and Technology Council Committee of US government scientists was created in 2015 (Stulberg et al., 2016). The US government scientists defined microbiome as “a multispecies community of microorganisms in a specific environment (that is, host, habitat or ecosystem)” and microbiome research as “those studies that emphasize community-level analyses with data derived from genome-enabled technologies” (Stulberg et al., 2016).
Mounting evidence on microbiome and its impact on host health and metabolic functions has been generated by next-generation sequencing over the last few years. Remarkably, the microbiome is now referred to as the “new biomarker” of health (Shukla et al., 2017) mainly due to its role in maintaining host physiology (Sommer and Bäckhed, 2013, Barrett and Wu, 2017), maturation and “education” of the immune system (Kelly et al., 2007, Chung et al., 2012) and its potential to mediate host metabolic development (Cho et al., 2012, Cox et al., 2014). Since coevolution of mammals and their microbiota has occurred over millions of years (Ley et al., 2008) is not a surprise that this tight connection between host and its microbiota exists.
In veterinary medicine, symbiosis between ruminant host and microbial population is essential for animal survival and existence, mainly due to its role in converting plant and grain materials, consumed by the host, into available energy resources that are subsequently absorbed and metabolized by the host (Hungate, 1966). Given its complexity and importance to the ruminant existence, the bovine gastrointestinal tract microbiota has been extensively investigated (Khafipour et al., 2009, Jami and Mizrahi, 2012, Jami et al., 2013, Meale et al., 2016, DillMcFarland et al., 2017). However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that microbial communities in other anatomical sites, such as mammary gland (Oikonomou et al., 2012, Oikonomou et al., 2014, Addis et al., 2016) and airways (Holman et al., 2017), are also relevant for bovine health.
Presented at the 2021 Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada. For information on the next edition, click here.
Addis, M.F., A. Tanca, S. Uzzau, G. Oikonomou, R.C. Bicalho, and P. Moroni. 2016. The bovine milk microbiota: insights and perspectives from -omics studies. Mol Biosyst.
Barrett, K.E. and G.D. Wu. 2017. Influence of the microbiota on host physiology - moving beyond the gut. J Physiol 595(2):433-435.
Cho, I., S. Yamanishi, L. Cox, B.A. Methé, J. Zavadil, K. Li, Z. Gao, D. Mahana, K. Raju, I. Teitler, H. Li, A.V. Alekseyenko, and M.J. Blaser. 2012. Antibiotics in early life alter the murine colonic microbiome and adiposity. Nature 488(7413):621-626.
Chung, H., S.J. Pamp, J.A. Hill, N.K. Surana, S.M. Edelman, E.B. Troy, N.C. Reading, E. J. Villablanca, S. Wang, J.R. Mora, Y. Umesaki, D. Mathis, C. Benoist, D.A. Relman, and D.L. Kasper. 2012. Gut immune maturation depends on colonization with a host-specific microbiota. Cell 149(7):1578-1593.
Cox, L.M., S. Yamanishi, J. Sohn, A.V. Alekseyenko, J.M. Leung, I. Cho, S.G. Kim, H. Li, Z. Gao, D. Mahana, J.G. Zárate Rodriguez, A.B. Rogers, N. Robine, P. Loke, and M.J. Blaser. 2014. Altering the intestinal microbiota during a critical developmental window has lasting metabolic consequences. Cell 158(4):705-721.
Dill-McFarland, K.A., J.D. Breaker, and G. Suen. 2017. Microbial succession in the gastrointestinal tract of dairy cows from 2 weeks to first lactation. Sci Rep 7:40864.
Feughelman, M., R.L angridge, W.E. Seeds, A.R. Stokes, H.R. Wilson, C.W. Hooper, M.H. Wilkins, R.K. Barclay, and L.D. Hamilton. 1955. Molecular structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid and nucleoprotein. Nature 175(4463):834-838.
Handelsman, J., M.R. Rondon, S.F. Brady, J. Clardy, and R.M. Goodman. 1998. Molecular biological access to the chemistry of unknown soil microbes: a new frontier for natural products. Chem Biol 5(10):R245-249.
Holman, D.B., E. Timsit, S. Amat, D.W. Abbott, A.G. Buret, and T.W. Alexander. 2017. The nasopharyngeal microbiota of beef cattle before and after transport to a feedlot. BMC Microbiol 17(1):70.
Hungate, R. 1966. The rumen and its microbes. Academic Press Inc, New York.
Jami, E., A. Israel, A. Kotser, and I. Mizrahi. 2013. Exploring the bovine rumen bacterial community from birth to adulthood. ISME J 7(6):1069-1079.
Jami, E. and I. Mizrahi. 2012. Similarity of the ruminal bacteria across individual lactating cows. Anaerobe 18(3):338-343.
Kelly, D., T. King, and R. Aminov. 2007. Importance of microbial colonization of the gut in early life to the development of immunity. Mutat Res 622(1-2):58-69.
Khafipour, E., S. Li, J.C. Plaizier, and D.O. Krause. 2009. Rumen microbiome composition determined using two nutritional models of subacute ruminal acidosis. Appl Environ Microbiol 75(22):7115-7124.
Ley, R.E., C.A. Lozupone, M. Hamady, R. Knight, and J.I. Gordon. 2008. Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota. Nat Rev Microbiol 6(10):776-788.
Meale, S.J., S. Li, P. Azevedo, H. Derakhshani, J.C. Plaizier, E. Khafipour, and M.A. Steele. 2016. Development of Ruminal and Fecal Microbiomes Are Affected by Weaning But Not Weaning Strategy in Dairy Calves. Front Microbiol 7:582.
Oikonomou, G., M.L. Bicalho, E. Meira, R.E. Rossi, C. Foditsch, V.S. Machado, A.G. Teixeira, C. Santisteban, Y.H. Schukken, and R.C. Bicalho. 2014. Microbiota of cow's milk; distinguishing healthy, sub-clinically and clinically diseased quarters. PLoS One 9(1):e85904.
Oikonomou, G., V.S. Machado, C. Santisteban, Y.H. Schukken, and R.C. Bicalho. 2012. Microbial diversity of bovine mastitic milk as described by pyrosequencing of metagenomic 16s rDNA. PLoS One 7(10):e47671.
Shukla, S.D., K.F. Budden, R. Neal, and P.M. Hansbro. 2017. Microbiome effects on immunity, health and disease in the lung. Clin Transl Immunology 6(3):e133.
Sommer, F. and F. Bäckhed. 2013. The gut microbiota--masters of host development and physiology. Nat Rev Microbiol 11(4):227-238.
Stulberg, E., D. Fravel, L.M. Proctor, D.M. Murray, J. LoTempio, L. Chrisey, J. Garland, K. Goodwin, J. Graber, M.C. Harris, S. Jackson, M. Mishkind, D.M. Porterfield, and A. Records. 2016. An assessment of US microbiome research. Nat Microbiol 1:15015.
Watson, J.D. and F.H. Crick. 1953. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171(4356):737-738.
Wilkins, M.H. 1956. Physical studies of the molecular structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid and nucleoprotein. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 21:75-90.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)