INCREASING CORN-BASED FIBER UTILIZATION IN SWINE BY UNDERSTANDING ITS IMPACT ON GASTROINTESTINAL MICROBIOTA AND THE INTESTINAL TRANSCRIPTOME

Our long-term goal is to develop or enhance strategies that increase the energetic contribution of corn-based fiber (CBF) in swine diets to improve the efficiency and sustainability of pork production in the U.S. Therefore, the overall objective of this proposal is to obtain preliminary evidence on the metabolic capacity of gastrointestinal microbiota, and physiological mechanisms along the gastrointestinal tract to absorb, transport, and utilize microbial metabolites in pigs fed CBF. Our specific objectives and hypotheses are as follows:Objective 1: Determine the influence of CBF on microbial metabolism and composition along GIT of growing pigs using metagenomic reconstruction from microbial binning. Our working hypothesis is that because the utilization of CBF in swine is reliant on microbial fermentation, understanding its influence on metabolic capacity of the microbiome could lead to novel technologies for improving the fermentation of fiber.Objective 2: Investigate the capacity of the GIT to absorb, transport, and utilize microbial metabolites derived from the fermentation of CBF using targeted transcriptomics. Our working hypothesis is that for the pig to capitalize on CBF fermentation it must be able to absorb, and transport produced microbial metabolites.