（通讯员 莫全）近日，我院李家奎教授团队在《Trends in Food Science & Technology》发表题为“High altitude microbiome: Insight into yak gut microbiota and its nutritional and functional involvement for food systems”的综述性论文。系统总结了牦牛肠道微生物在高海拔极端环境中的独特适应机制及其在畜牧和食品行业中的潜在应用价值。
牦牛作为我国青藏高原的特有畜种，是青藏高原“能量转换器”，具有重要的经济和生态学价值。牦牛的耐寒、耐缺氧、耐粗饲等特征与其肠道微生物的独特性紧密相关，论文系统总结了牦牛肠道微生物群在分解植物纤维、产生短链脂肪酸（SCFAs）、氮代谢以及免疫调节方面的关键作用及机制。结合团队前期研究结果详细阐述了牦牛源益生菌通过增强肠道稳态、肠道屏障功能、宿主免疫力以及调节肠道菌群及其代谢产物来发挥健康功效的潜在机制。同时系统分析了牦牛肠道微生物在提高饲料效率、减少甲烷排放以及开发新型益生菌和功能性食品添加剂方面的潜在应用前景，为畜牧业减抗替抗、实现牦牛产业绿色发展提供了新的视角。
我院博士后Muhammad Fakhar-e-Alam kulyar和莫全为共同第一作者，李家奎教授为通讯作者。论文相关研究工作得到现代农业产业技术体系和西藏自治区重点研发项目的资助。
审核人：李家奎
论文摘要如下：
Background: The yak, one of the most representative species from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, is well adapted to hypoxic, frigid, and nutritionally inadequate conditions. Such adaptation is deeply rooted in its gut microbiota, highly specialized at the consortium level in the hydrolysis of recalcitrant plant polymers, biosynthesis of volatile fatty acids, and metabolic coordination between hosts and microbes. Scope and approach: This review transcends conventional microbiota compositional studies to examine the metabolic and ecological basis of the yak gut microbiome. Throughout, particular attention was given to the dominant cellulolytic genera comprising Ruminococcus and Fibrobacter with methanogenic archaea, explaining their synergistic roles in the degradation of plant biomass, utilization of hydrogen, and biogenesis of methane. Discussion on such topics emphasizes altitude-induced microbiota perturbations, implications for host immune modulation, and their translational potential for biotechnological innovation. Besides, it provides an overall comparison between the yak-specific microbiota and conventional probiotic formulation while pointing out the essential roles in ecological functioning and adaptive relevance to physiological stresses in extreme environments.
Key findings: Yak gut microbiota exhibit striking seasonal plasticity, reflecting the forage-mediated shift in the functional metagenomic pathways of lignocellulose degradation, nitrogen assimilation, and biosynthesis of SCFAs. Adding metabolic efficiency, microbiota-mediated modulation of mTOR and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α pathways underlines their role in energy homeostasis, lactation performance, and reproductive physiology. These findings have established the unrivaled ecological versatility of the yak microbiota and their potential to improve methane mitigation and sustainable livestock management. The development of host-microbiome metabolic modeling through priorities for functional redundancy and microbial synergy facilitates precision probiotics and climate-resilient livestock systems. This work has pointed out the knowledge gaps and underlined the transformative potential of yak microbiota in solving global challenges associated with food security and sustainable agriculture.
论文链接: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2025.104897
