Exploring the Role of Rumen Microbiota and KLF15 Gene in the Performance of Growing Hu Sheep

Exon mutations and the rumen microbiome play crucial roles in influencing growth performance in meat animals, making them key factors for enhancing meat production efficiency. This study aimed to further investigate the effects of host genetics (KLF15 c. 6256511 A>G) and rumen microorganisms on the growth performance of Hu sheep. This study selected 50 growing Hu sheep with extreme body weight and uniformly fed them a diet with a concentrateto-roughage ratio of approximately 1. 5: 1. Rumen content samples were collected for 16S rDNA sequencing. Growth traits and feed efficiency were measured at 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, and 180 days of age. The high body weight (H-BW) group exhibited better production performance, with significant differences found in growth traits, slaughter traits, and fat deposition traits between the H-BW and low weight (L-BW) group (P G mutation site and the RikenellaceaeRC9gutgroup provides a valuable approach to enhance the growth traits and overall production performance of Hu sheep.