Abstract #T243

# T243
Microbial community structure of conventional and brown midrib corns ensiled at low dry matter concentrations with and without a combo inoculant.
J. J. Romero*1,4, J. W. Park2, Y. Zhao3, Y. H. Joo2, M. A. Balseca-Paredes4, E. Gutierrez-Rodriguez5, M. S. Castillo4, 1Animal and Veterinary Sciences, School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 2Division of Applied Life Science (BK21Plus, Insti. of Agri. & Life Sci.), Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea, 3Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, 4Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 5Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

We evaluated the effects of an inoculant on the microbial community structure of 4 corn hybrids ensiled at low DM concentration. Treatment design was the factorial combination of 4 corn hybrids (HYB) ensiled with (INO) and without (CON) inoculant. HYB were TMF2R737, F2F817 (A and B, 30.5 and 26.3% DM, respectively), P2089YHR, and P1449XR (C and D, 31.1 and 31.5% DM). B and D were brown midrib mutants. The inoculant contained Lactobacillus buchneri and Pediococcus pentosaceus (4 × 105 and 1 × 105 cfu/g of fresh corn). Experimental design was a complete randomized design with treatments replicated 6 times. Corn was chopped, treated or not with inoculant, packed into 7.6-L bucket silos, and stored for 100 d. At d 0, bacterial relative abundance (RA, %) of Enterobacteriaceae was lower in D vs. the other hybrids (~51.3 vs 58.4, respectively) and lower for CON vs. INO (54.8 vs. 58.5 ± 1.83, respectively; P < 0.04). For fungi, A and C had a higher RA vs. B and D for Tremellales (~25.8 vs. ~13.9 ± 3.91) and lower RA for Mucoraceae (~3.64 vs. ~7.51 ± 1.18; P < 0.04). At d 100 for bacteria, INO had higher RA vs. CON for Lactobacillaceae (99.2 vs. 75.7 ± 3.08) and lower RA for Enterobacteriaceae (0.28 vs. 9.93 ± 1.32) and Lachnospiraceae (0.03 vs. 1.71 ± 0.60; P < 0.05). INO had a lower RA of Leuconostocaceae vs. CON only for D (0.21 vs. 14.5) but not for other HYB (~0.21 vs. ~2.70 ± 1.87; HYB × INO, P < 0.05). For fungi, INO had a lower RA vs. CON for Monascaceae (12.6 vs. 44.7 ± 7.30), and increased incertae sedis Tremellales (8.0 vs. 1.2 ± 2.31) and Saccharomycetales (6.4 vs. 0.3 ± 1.72). INO had less OTUs for bacteria (66 vs. 226 ± 10.7) and more for fungi (45.6 vs. 20.1 ± 3.59; P < 0.01; d 100) vs. CON. PCoA plots showed a separation in the structure of bacterial and fungal communities at d 0 and 100, and within d 100 between the CON and INO. The results indicate that epiphytic microbial composition differ depending on HYB. In addition, INO favored the dominance of the Lactobacillaceae, compared with a more diverse CON, and reduced the dominance of Monascaceae, increasing fungal diversity relative to CON.

Key Words: corn silage, microbial diversity, inoculant