fermentation-microbiome
Fermentation-microbiome research explores how microbial communities — bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms — interact during fermentation processes within and around plant tissues. In plant science, this field is critical for understanding rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbiomes that influence nutrient cycling, plant health, and stress resilience. Insights from fermentation-microbiome studies are increasingly applied to improve crop productivity, develop biofertilizers, and understand how plant-associated microbes shape secondary metabolite production.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-14
Researchers identified three distinct bacterial community types in silage — fermented crop feed — showing that microbial composition strongly predicts fermentation quality, with lactic acid bacteria-dominated samples producing the best results.
Three distinct bacterial clusters were identified across 156 silage samples: the E-cluster (Enterobacteriaceae-dominant), P-cluster (Pseudomonas/Janthinobacterium-dominant), and L-cluster (Lactobacillus-dominant).
The L-cluster (lactic acid bacteria) produced superior fermentation quality compared to both the E- and P-clusters, demonstrating that microbial community type is a strong predictor of silage outcome.
Community assembly across all three clusters was driven primarily by stochastic (random) processes — with ecological drift dominating E- and L-clusters, and dispersal limitation more influential in the P-cluster.