Characteristics of the rumen virome in Japanese cattle

Abstract The rumen microbiome is a highly complex ecosystem that includes bacteria, archaea, protozoa, fungi, and viruses. Viruses have a high potential to modify the rumen digestion of feeds via infection and cell lysis of prokaryotes in the rumen; however, understanding of the rumen virome is substantially less advanced due to limitations of the reference genome database. In this study, we conducted metagenomic sequencing of virus-like particles (VLPs) in the rumens of 22 Japanese cattle to construct a reference viral genome catalog of the rumen and uncover the rumen virome characteristics. We succeeded in construction of 8 232 nonredundant viral genomes (≥5 kb length and ≥50% completeness). Among them, putative hosts of 1 223 virus genomes were predicted, and 1 053 virus genomes were taxonomically classified, mainly Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, and Podoviridae. Additionally, 2 764 putative auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were identified in the viral genomes. Importantly, 22 viral genomes associated with archaea in the rumen were identified. Some archaeal viruses have AMGs related to DNA synthesis, suggesting that archaeal viruses control archaeal populations in the rumen and affect methane production from the rumen. Furthermore, we revealed that most rumen viruses were highly rumen-and individual-specific and related to rumen-specific prokaryotes. Overall, the rumen viral catalog and findings of this study will help future analyses to uncover the roles of rumen viruses in feed digestion, productivity, and methane production.