TABLE 4.

Comparison of copy numbers of targeted methanogen 16S rRNA genes in L-RFI and H-RFI animals^a

Organism group	No. of copies/ml		P	Proportion of total methanogens (%)		P	Amplification efficiency (%)
	L-RFI	H-RFI		L-RFI	H-RFI
Total methanogens	(2.12 ± 0.29) × 107	(2.52 ± 0.29) × 107	0.16	100	100		93.55
M. stadtmanae	(1.33 ± 0.18) × 106	(2.48 ± 0.59) × 106	0.03	6.02 ± 1.16	11.53 ± 2.55	0.02	94.46
Methanobrevibacter sp. strain AbM4	(5.69 ± 1.10) × 105	(2.20 ± 0.59) × 106	0.02	3.73 ± 0.60	8.45 ± 2.16	0.02	94.30

^aValues shown are means ± standard errors. The L-RFI and H-RFI groups each contained 29 animals.