Additives affect the distribution of metabolic profile, microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in high-moisture sweet corn kernel silage

This work investigated the effects of chemical additive vanillin (V), homofermentative Lactobacillus plantarum (LP), and heterofermentative Lactobacillus brevis (LB) on the distribution of the metabolome, microbial communities, viruses, and antibiotic-resistance genes in high-moisture corn kernel silage. LP and LB improved lactic acid production, whereas V and LB inhibited protein degradation. A significant difference was observed between the metabolite profiles of silage treated with additives and a control. In silage, the Proteobacteria and Ascomycota were the main hosts of antibiotic-resistance genes, primarily antibiotic efflux. The additives significantly affected the virus content in silage, and LB-treated silage featured the lowest virus content. Overall, these findings suggest that the application of the additive LB to high-moisture corn kernel silage impacts antibiotic-resistance gene reduction and virus distribution within the silage.