Absolute microbiota variation of alfalfa silages inoculated with L. plantarum

Microorganisms play important roles in the protein degradation of alfalfa silages. However, the quantitative influence of microbial taxa, and genetic function associations behind protein transformation process in silages remain unknown. The high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing expanded our insight of microbial communities based on relative abundance. Whereas, it only provides the proportional abundances of taxa, without absolute amounts. If one taxa increases in relative abundance we cannot identify whether that taxa is blooming or others are declining. The absolute quantification 16S rRNA sequencing is necessary to addressed this challenge. Here, we used a synthetic spike-in standards strategy to map absolute microbiota variation, and to investigate quantitative ecological associations of the protein degradation process in silages.