Microbial protein synthesized in the rumen is a major contributor of metabolizable protein. Thus, accurate estimation of microbial protein is essential in ruminant nutrition. The objective of this review is to describe the microbial composition, major factors affecting its yield and methods to estimate microbial protein flow to the intestine. The use of novel molecular techniques to elucidate the ruminal microbiome and improve methods for estimating microbial protein are discussed. Bacteria, protozoa, fungi and archaea compose the ruminal microbiome. Main factors affecting microbial protein synthesis are availability of carbohydrates, ruminally degradable protein, dietary fat, and ruminal pH. Major microbial markers used to estimate microbial protein synthesis are total purines, diaminopimelic acid and labeled nitrogen; in addition, DNA through real-time PCR is being tested for the estimation of bacterial, protozoal and yeast protein separately. The main difficulty in the estimation of microbial protein flow is obtaining representative microbial pellets from the rumen, which are used as reference to establish the ratio of marker/nitrogen. Detailed phylogenetic analysis using High-throughput DNA sequencing has recently revealed drastic Rev Mex Cienc Pecu 2019;10(1):120-148 121 taxonomic differences between fluid-associated bacteria and bacteria from whole intestinal digesta contents. For example, ruminal fluid contains less Fibrobacteres and Proteobacteria, but more Firmicutes compared to whole intestinal digesta. This demonstrates the need of developing effective bacterial collection procedures for obtaining representative ruminal microbial reference pellets to prevent bias on the estimation of the contribution of microbial protein to the intestinal supply of metabolizable protein.