Molecular analysis of the bacterial microbiome in the rumen of Algerian dromedary

Abstract

The bacterial community of the forestomach plays important roles in the digestive processes of ruminants and pseudo-ruminants. To investigate the rumen microbiota in the pseudo-rumen of camels (Camelus dromedarius) raised in a natural environment in Algeria, bacterial diversity was determined from 25 dromedaries using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. A total of 25 bacterial phyla were identified across all the samples, including Firmicutes (close to 85℅), Bacteroidetes (about 12%) and to a lesser extent Proteobacteria (< 1%), with these three phyla together accounting for more than 97% of all sequences. Our results are consistent with previous observations of bacterial communities diversity and abundancy in the rumen or pseudo-rumen of other ruminant species (either domestic or wild), although the abundance of individual bacterial phyla showed remarkably high disparities. Links between the richness and type of diet and the composition of the rumen microbiome are discussed.