29 research outputs found
New aspects and strategies for methane mitigation from ruminants
The growing demand for sustainable animal production is compelling researchers to explore the potential approaches to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from livestock that are mainly produced by enteric fermentation. Some potential solutions, for instance, the use of chemical inhibitors to reduce methanogenesis, are not feasible in routine use due to their toxicity to ruminants, inhibition of efficient rumen function or other transitory effects. Strategies, such as use of plant secondary metabolites and dietary manipulations have emerged to reduce the methane emission, but these still require extensive research before these can be recommended and deployed in the livestock industry sector. Furthermore, immunization vaccines for methanogens and phages are also under investigation for mitigation of enteric methanogenesis. The increasing knowledge of methanogenic diversity in rumen, DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have paved the way for chemogenomic strategies by targeting methane producers. Chemogenomics will help in finding target enzymes and proteins, which will further assist in the screening of natural as well chemical inhibitors. The construction of a methanogenic gene catalogue through these approaches is an attainable objective. This will lead to understand the microbiome function, its relation with the host and feeds, and therefore, will form the basis of practically viable and eco-friendly methane mitigation approaches, while improving the ruminant productivity
Finding needles in haystacks:Linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi
DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition
often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence
data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has
never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome
projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for
en masse species assignments. In this article, we focus on selecting and re-annotating a
set of marker reference sequences that represent each currently accepted order of Fungi.
The particular focus is on sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region in the
nuclear ribosomal cistron, derived from type specimens and/or ex-type cultures. Reannotated
and verified sequences were deposited in a curated public database at the
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), namely the RefSeq Targeted Loci
(RTL) database, and will be visible during routine sequence similarity searches with
NR_prefixed accession numbers. A set of standards and protocols is proposed to improve
the data quality of new sequences, and we suggest how type and other reference
sequences can be used to improve identification of Fungi.The Intramural Research Programs
of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National
Library of Medicine and the National Human Genome Research
Institute, both at the National Institutes of Health.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA177353am201