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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (8): 164-175.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022384

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Effects of storage time on the fermentation quality, bacterial community composition, and functional profile of sweet sorghum silage

Jie ZHAO1(), Xue-jing YIN1, Si-ran WANG1, Zhi-hao DONG1, Jun-feng LI1, Yu-shan JIA2,3, Tao SHAO1()   

  1. 1.College of Agro-grassland Science,Nanjing Agricultural University,Nanjing 210095,China
    2.Key Laboratory of Forage Cultivation,Processing and High Efficient Utilization,Ministry of Agriculture,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University,Hohhot 010018,China
    3.Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources,Ministry of Education,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University,Hohhot 010018,China
  • Received:2022-09-27 Revised:2022-12-05 Online:2023-08-20 Published:2023-06-16
  • Contact: Tao SHAO

Abstract:

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the chemical composition, fermentation quality, microbial community, and functional shifts of sweet sorghum (SS) during ensiling. SS harvested at the hard dough stage was naturally ensiled for 1, 3, 7, 15, 30, and 60 days. After opening the silo, SS silage (SSS) was randomly sampled for analyses of chemical composition, fermentation parameters, and microbial abundance. Fresh, 7-day, and 60-day SSS were further subjected to high-throughput sequencing and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional prediction analyses. After 60 days of ensiling, SSS displayed homolactic fermentation as characterized by a lack of butyric acid, a low pH value, a high lactic acid concentration, and a high ratio of lactic to acetic acid. Enterobacter (26.0%) and Pantoea (25.7%) were the most common genera in fresh SS, while Leuconostoc (34.1%) and Lactococcus (31.6%) were dominant in 7-day SSS and were subsequently replaced by Lactobacillus (73.5%) in 60-day SSS. A heatmap constructed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient values showed that Lactobacillus was positively related to the lactic acid concentration and negatively related to the pH value. The KEGG metabolic profiles differed substantially between before and after ensiling. The ensiling process downregulated the metabolism of amino acids, energy, cofactors and vitamins, but upregulated the metabolism of nucleotides and carbohydrates. Overall, high-throughput sequencing combined with KEGG functional prediction analyses further confirmed the succession of cocci-shaped lactic acid bacteria to rod-shaped lactic acid bacteria during the SS ensilage process, and revealed trends of up-regulated carbohydrate metabolism and down-regulated amino acid metabolism. A thorough knowledge of the changes in bacterial community dynamics and functional shifts of SS during ensiling is important for understanding the fermentation mechanism and may contribute to the production of high-quality SSS.

Key words: sweet sorghum, fermentation quality, microbial community succession, functional shifts, silage