The Cultivation and Sequencing of Yak Microbiome Members Unveils the Abundance of Functional Potential within the Gut Microbiota

Through cultivation of 16 fresh yak fecal samples from the Nam Co Lake area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, approximately 1200 bacterial strains were successfully isolated, supplementing the collection of 548 reference genomes for ruminant animals. These strains were classified into 77 species, contributing to at least 267 new reference genomes.The investigation revealed that these microorganisms exhibited a wide range of functional diversity, which holds great potential for future applications.