Answers to Mark Aspin's questions provided as follows:
Has this finding been discussed with the Low GHG genetics research team led by Suzanne Rowe? 
The results from the analyses have been discussed during our Rumen Microbiome Workshop in March, when John McEwan was present.  We have also correlated bacterial gene and transcript abundances in these rams with SNP and genome sequence data from the low GHG genetics team, and these correlations were reported to the NZAGRC and PGGRC back in July/August last year.

Does it have some utility to be applied for genetic selection of low GHG livestock? 
When I reported these findings to NZAGRC/PGGRC, I pointed out the potential use of the correlated rumen microbial genes as proxies for methane yield, and at your and Harry’s request costed a project to develop a screening procedure based on these correlated genes.  This proposal was subsequently not supported, so I have assumed that neither the NZAGRC nor the PGGRC are interested in following this up as a screening method. Therefore, we have written up this work as a follow up journal article to the Genome Research paper, and we are intending to submit the article to MBio for publication as a GPLER project output once we have ROI clearance. 
