The rumen contains a complex microbial ecosystem that degrades plant materials, such as cellulose and hemicellulose. We herein reconstructed 146 nonredundant, rumen-specific metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), with ≥50% completeness and <10% contamination, from cattle in Japan. The majority of MAGs were potentially novel strains, encoding various enzymes related to plant biomass degradation and volatile fatty acid production. The MAGs identified in the present study may be valuable resources to enhance the resolution of future taxonomical and functional studies based on metagenomes and metatranscriptomes.
Keywords: Japanese cattle; metagenome-assembled genomes; metagenomics; microbiome; rumen.