<p>Growing up in a remote village in India gave Dr Sandeep Kumar a first-hand understanding of the significant impact that farming can have on a society. Even the small-scale farms of his tiny hometown, where families might each have one or two cows in their backyard, made a big impression on the young Sandeep and fostered a desire to learn more about the very building blocks of agriculture.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That fascination led Sandeep all the way to New Zealand, and with the help of the <a href="http://www.nzagrc.org.nz/"><u>New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre</u></a>, he is graduating this month from Massey University with a PhD on the physiology of rumen bacteria associated with low-methane emitting sheep.</p>
<p>After graduating with a Master&rsquo;s degree in microbiology in India, Sandeep worked for the Indian Veterinary Research Institute as a rumen microbiologist. It was there he first made contact with a fellow rumen microbiologist on the other side of the world: AgResearch&rsquo;s Dr Peter Janssen, who is the Principal Investigator of the jointly-funded PGgRc-NZAGRC <a href="methane.html"><u>methane mitigation programme</u></a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Like India, New Zealand also places a lot of value on agriculture, and I was quite fascinated by the dairy farming systems in New Zealand too, which are highly organised and very productive,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I had some conversations with Peter Janssen and we figured out that I could come to New Zealand on a LEARN (<a href="https://livestockemissions.net/"><u>Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network</u></a>) Fellowship, which I was lucky enough to do in 2011.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sandeep worked as a technician with Dr Janssen and Dr Gemma Henderson at AgResearch for six months, then returned to India for a year. However, he felt he had unfinished business in New Zealand, and came back to AgResearch to study what&rsquo;s known in rumen microbiology circles as an historically iconic rumen bacteria, <em>Quinella ovalis</em>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Along with <em>Sharpea</em> and <em>Kandleria</em>, <em>Quinella ovalis</em> has been found to be abundant in low-methane emitting sheep, and Sandeep wanted to understand why.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;This bacterium was first identified in 1913, more than a century ago, but it had never been cultured in the lab or studied in depth. In fact, the only two papers that had previously been written about how <em>Quinella</em> works appeared to contradict each other,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sandeep received a Walsh fellowship from <a href="https://www.teagasc.ie/"><u>Teagasc</u></a> (Ireland), along with research funding from the NZAGRC, which allowed him to enrol at Massey University to do his PhD. He was based mainly at AgResearch&rsquo;s Grasslands campus in Palmerston North, and his research was supervised by Dr Janssen, Dr Mark Patchett (Massey) and Dr Sinead Waters (Teagasc). He also received valuable mentorship from a number of other current and former AgResearch scientists.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Because <em>Quinella</em> could not be cultured, Sandeep worked on developing different ways to analyse its metabolism to gain a better understanding of why it is more abundant in sheep that produce less methane and how it might be cultured. He worked out how to concentrate cells of <em>Quinella</em> from rumen contents and extracted their DNA. He discovered there were multiple <em>Quinella</em> species&mdash;he sequenced the genomes of four different species. He then analysed the proteins encoded by those genomes, and the key enzymes involved in the metabolic processes of this bacterium.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;This was the first time anyone had studied the physiology of <em>Quinella</em>,&rdquo; says Sandeep. &ldquo;Reconstructing its metabolic pathways showed that it creates a range of different products during the fermentation process: propionate, acetate and lactate. These products appeared in both of the previous studies, which shows they weren&rsquo;t contradictory after all but actually demonstrated the different pathways that <em>Quinella</em> has.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sandeep&rsquo;s research also showed <em>Quinella</em> either produces no hydrogen or much less hydrogen (which is the main precursor of methane in the rumen) than other bacteria.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think my work will be helpful for any future research in low-methane emitting animals, especially for things like breeding programmes, as well as a number of other research areas that the NZAGRC is supporting.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sandeep&rsquo;s PhD thesis is currently under embargo while papers detailing some of his findings are being finalised and will be published in scientific journals.&nbsp;</p>
<p>He would one day like to take his knowledge back to India, but for now has accepted a position with AgResearch&rsquo;s forage science group. &ldquo;This will allow me to research the plant part of the digestive process, which is eaten by the animal and which ultimately contributes towards methane emissions,&rdquo; Sandeep says.</p>
<p>&ldquo;AgResearch are really among the world leaders in the field of rumen microbiology&mdash;the work they&rsquo;re doing and the international recognition they&rsquo;re receiving is amazing, so it&rsquo;s been a real privilege to work with Peter Janssen and the other scientists there.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>More information</h3>
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<td style="width: 10%; text-align: left;"><img title="Grazing Sheep and Cows" src="user/image/thumb/221/Cow Sheep.jpg" alt="Grazing Sheep and Cows" data-href="" /></td>
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<h3><a href="methane.html">NZAGRC-PGGRC methane research programme</a></h3>
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<h3><a href="agresearch.html">AgResearch</a></h3>
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