New Functional DNA Microarray to Monitor Rumen Microbiota Activity

By Sophie Comtet-Marre, Frédérique Chaucheyras-Durand, Ourdia Bouzid, Pascale Mosoni, Ali R. Bayat, Pierre Peyret and Evelyne Forano

Published on 01/02/2018

Title: FibroChip, a Functional DNA Microarray to Monitor CellulolyticGlossaryView allCellulolytic
Capacity to hydrolyze cellulose.
and HemicellulolyticGlossaryView allHemicellulolytic
Capacity to hydrolyze hemicelluloseGlossaryView allHemicellulose
The carbohydrate contained in the cell wall of plants. It is a polysaccharide less complex than cellulose and easily hydrolysable to monosaccharides thanks to hemicellulolytic enzyme.
.
Activities of Rumen MicrobiotaGlossaryView allMicrobiota
A microbiota is the whole of the ecosystem (bacteria, yeast, fungi and viruses) living in a specific environment. Intestinal microbiota was previously called “intestinal flora.”

 

French scientists recently developed an innovative functional DNA microarray called FibroChip, which targets 392 genes involved in monitoring ruminal celluloseGlossaryView allCellulose
The main carbohydrate contained in cell wall of plants. Cellulose is digested by ruminants thanks to enzyme produced by some cellulolytic bacteria.
and hemi-cellulose degradation. FibroChip is a reliable and high-throughput tool to monitor the fiber degrading microbiota in the rumen. The tool has already helped highlight the important, and probably still underestimated, role of fungi in ruminal fiber degradation.

 

Click here to learn more about this exciting new tool.