Research leads to possible emissions breakthrough

An NZ research team may have delivered a breakthrough for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand research on microbes in the stomachs of cows and sheep could provide a scientific breakthrough for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium programme, led by AgResearch, has mapped the genetic information of a microbe responsible for the animals' methane emissions.

The findings of Graeme Attwood and his team were published today in science journal PLOS One.

They believe the discovery could speed up the work of scientists to alter the microbe's methane generation, which was a target of scientists researching ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

"The consortium programme is now using the gene sequence information directly in two different ways: an immune system approach which identifies parts of the methanogen that will stimulate salivary antibodies to work against these microbes in the rumen, and a chemogenomics approach which uses small molecule inhibitors that target essential methanogen enzymes," Dr Attwood said.

"Methane emissions from sheep and cattle has 21 times the impact of carbon dioxide and is a key target of research aiming to reduce global greenhouse gases.

"We're excited by our completion and publication of the genome of the methane-forming microbe (methanogen) concerned, Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, as this opens the door to many methane mitigation options."

Dr Attwood said the work was part of a larger programme of work funded by the consortium, a partnership between the government and livestock industry which had been researching solutions for methane and nitrous oxide since 2002.

- NZPA