Characterization of Microbial Diversity and Community Structure in Fermentation Pit Mud of Different Ages for Production of Strong-Aroma Baijiu.

Characterization of Microbial Diversity and Community Structure in Fermentation Pit Mud of Different Ages for Production of Strong-Aroma Baijiu. Pol J Microbiol. 2020;69:1-14 Authors: Wang XJ, Zhu HM, Ren ZQ, Huang ZG, Wei CH, Deng J Abstract In the traditional fermentation process of strong-aroma Baijiu, a fermentation pit mud (FPM) provides many genera of microorganisms for fermentation. However, the functional microorganisms that have an important effect on the quality of Baijiu and their changes with the age of fermentation pit (FP) are poorly understood. Herein, the Roche 454 pyrosequencing technique and a phospholipid fatty-acid analysis were employed to reveal the structure and diversity of prokaryotic communities in FPM samples that have been aged for 5, 30, and 100 years. The results revealed an increase in total prokaryotic biomass with an FP age; however, Shannon's diversity index decreased significantly (p < 0.01). These results suggested that a unique microbial community structure evolved with uninterrupted use of the FP. The number of functional microorganisms, which could produce the flavor compounds of strong-aroma Baijiu, increased with the FP age. Among them, Clostridium and Ruminococcaceae are microorganisms that directly produce caproic acid. The increase of their relative abundance in the FPM might have improved the quality of strong-aroma Baijiu. Syntrophomonas, Methanobacterium, and Methanocorpusculum might ...
Source: Polish Journal of Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Tags: Pol J Microbiol Source Type: research