AUTHOR=Yang Jinsong , Zhao Songsong , Zhi Wenbo , Lu Tianyu , Qiao Huahua , Liu Wei , Dou Ying , Tan Haisheng , Zhou Hanlin TITLE=Improvement of silage characteristics of Lactobacillus salivarius HMC4 and improvement of silage quality of king grass JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1468577 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1468577 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=The effect of HMC4 produced by protoplast fusion on silage was studied. The silage formula was composed of heterozygote HMC4 (Group C), parent Lactobacillus (Group A) and a combination of two parents (Group B). The fermentation quality and microbial composition of each batch of silage were evaluated. The results showed that the propionic acid concentration in group C was the lowest, but the organic acid content in feed was significantly increased. Groups B and C had slightly lower crude fiber levels than group A, while groups A and C had higher levels of soluble sugars. The dynamic observation of C group showed that the nutrient composition of feed changed gradually with the extension of silage period. High-throughput sequencing revealed fluctuations in microbial composition before and after silage. Over time, Lactobacillus became the dominant strain and its numbers steadily increased.