AUTHOR=Zhang Meimei , Liang Gege , Zhang Xinlong , Lu Xiaotan , Li Siyao , Wang Xu , Yang Wenzhu , Yuan Yuan , Jiao Peixin 

TITLE=The gas production, ruminal fermentation parameters, and microbiota in response to Clostridium butyricum supplementation on in vitro varying with media pH levels

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.960623

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.960623

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>The aim of this study was to investigate the gas production (GP), dry matter disappearance (DMD), fermentation parameters, and rumen microbiota in response to <italic>Clostridium butyricum</italic> (CB) supplementation in batch culture using a high forage substrate. The doses of CB were supplemented at 0 (Control), 0.5 × 10<sup>6</sup>, 1 × 10<sup>6</sup>, and 2 × 10<sup>6</sup>  CFU/bottle, respectively, at either media pH 6.0 or pH 6.6. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to detect the microbiota of fermentation culture in control and 1 × 10<sup>6</sup>  CFU/bottle after 24 h of incubation. The results showed that the GP (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), DMD (<italic>p</italic> = 0.008), total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), acetate to propionate ratio (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), and NH<sub>3</sub>-N concentration (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) were greater at media pH 6.6 than pH 6.0. Furthermore, the linearly increased DMD (pH 6.0, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002; pH 6.6, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and quadratically increased butyrate proportion (pH 6.0, <italic>p</italic> = 0.076; pH 6.6, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.053) and NH<sub>3</sub>-N concentration (pH 6.0, <italic>p</italic> = 0.003; pH 6.6, <italic>p</italic> = 0.014) were observed with increasing doses of CB. The Alpha diversity indexes of OTU number and Chao1 were higher (<italic>p</italic> = 0.045) at media pH 6.6 than pH 6.0, but they were not affected by CB supplementation. The PCoA analysis (unweighted uniFrac) demonstrated that the clustering of the bacterial microbiota of control and CB were distinctly separated from each other at media pH 6.0. At the phylum level, the abundance of <italic>Bacteroidota</italic> (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) decreased, whereas that of <italic>Firmicutes</italic> (<italic>p</italic> = 0.026) increased when the media pH was elevated from 6.0 to 6.6. Supplementation of CB increased relative abundances of <italic>Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group</italic> (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002), <italic>Christensenellaceae_R-7_group</italic> (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), and <italic>NK4A214_group</italic> (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002) at genus level. Interactions between media pH and CB addition were observed for bacteria at both phylum and genus levels. These results indicated that increasing the media pH level and CB supplementation increased <italic>in vitro</italic> rumen digestibility, and altered the ruminal fermentation pattern (by media pH) and microbiota.</p>