Wheat straw and alfalfa hay alone or combined in a high-concentrate diet alters microbial-host interaction in the rumen of lambs.

The inclusion of various forages in a normal forage-to-concentrate ratio has widely been reported to reveal the changes that occur in the foregut tissues. However, the mechanism by which the wheat straw, alfalfa hay, or both alter the orchestrated crosstalk of microbiome and host-transcriptome in the rumen of lambs fed a high-concentrate diet is elusive. Sixty-three Hulunbuir lambs were randomly allotted to 3 dietary groups, and each dietary group had 3 pens with 7 lambs. The lambs were fed high-concentrate diets (70%) supplemented with either 30% wheat straw (30S), a mixture of 15% alfalfa hay and 15% wheat straw (30M), or 30% alfalfa hay (30A) over a 2-week adaptation period and a 12-week formal trial. Compared with the 30S and 30A groups, the 30M group had greater (P < 0.05) levels of plasma glucagon-like peptide (GLP-2), interleukin-2 (IL-2). Humoral immunity showed a tendency to increase in the 30M group, as evidenced by the greater levels of plasma immunoglobulins (Ig) A and IgG (P > 0.05). The 16S rRNA result showed that the abundance of Lachnospiraceae (NK3A20 group and unclassified), Olsenella, Shuttleworthia, and Succiniclasticum were enriched in the 30M group. Meanwhile, the abundances of Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 and prevetolla_7 were enriched in 30S and 30A, respectively. The RNA-seq identified 35 shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the "30S vs. 30M" and "30S vs. 30A," enriched in lipid metabolism pathways, including glycerophospholipid and arachidonic acid metabolism. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis results revealed that the expression of genes in the darkred (194 genes) and darkgreen (134 genes) modules showed a strong positive correlation with phenotypic traits and bacterial genera, respectively. The genes in the darkgreen module were involved in carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism and showed a wide range of associations with Prevotella_7, Shuttleworthia, and Succiniclasticum, indicating that ruminal microbes might act as a vital driver in the microbiome-host interaction, likely through fermentation of end-products or metabolites. In conclusion, the results indicate that microbiome enrichment in response to feeding wheat straw and alfalfa hay might drive microbiome-host crosstalk to regulate rumen function in lambs fed a high-concentrate diet.