Abstract
Hong Qu glutinous rice wine (HQ wine) is a traditional alcoholic beverage produced in China by fermenting cooked rice using a fermentation starter prepared with the fungus Monascus purpureus. This starter (Hong Qu, HQ) is made empirically by open spontaneous fermentation that is hard to control and standardize, resulting in inconsistent wine quality. This study investigates representative HQ samples from a large geographic region. It explores fungal microbiome compositions, identifies characteristic differences important for the production of various HQ wine styles, and reveals the key fungi responsible for HQ wine fermentation characteristics. The source of the HQ inoculum was found to be the main factor influencing fungal community composition and diversity, followed by processing technology and geographical distribution. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) uncovered 14 genera as potential biomarkers to distinguish regional varieties of HQ. Significant differences were also found in fermentation characteristics such as liquefying power (LP), saccharifying power (SP), fermenting power (FP), total acid content (TA) and liquor-producing power (LPP). The key fungi responsible for LP (5 genera), SP (3 genera), FP (1 genera), LPP (4 genera), and TA (4 genera) were determined using redundancy correlation analysis. Finally, Spearman's correlation analysis indicated that LPP shows a strong positive correlation with FP and LP, while TA displays a strong negative correlation with FP. The results of this study may be utilized to prepare consistently high quality, next-generation HQ by better controlling fungal community structures, and to design fermentation processes for HQ wines with desirable oenological characteristics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 110146 |
| Pages (from-to) | 110146 |
| Journal | Food Research International |
| Volume | 141 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2021 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (31901803 to Y.Y.H.), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China (2019J01115 to Y.Y.H.), the Public Scientific Research Program of Fujian Province, China (2018R1014-5 to X.Y.R and 2019R1032-7 to Y.Y.H.), the Regional Development Program of Fujian Province, China (2019N3017 to Z.G.H.), the Young Talents Project of Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Fujian Province (YC2017-6 to X.Y.R.), the China Scholarship Council (202009350004 to Y.Y.H.), the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project (ARZT-1361640-H12-224 to I.M.); the Higher Education Institutional Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities in Hungary (NKFIH-1150-6/2019 to I.M.); and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIGMS 5R01GM114418 to I.M.). The authors thank the Beijing Allwegene Technology Co. Ltd. for Illumina MiSeq sequencing and analysis.
Keywords
- Correlations analysis
- Fungal microbiome
- Illumina high-throughput sequencing
- LEfSe analysis
- Rice wine starters
- Traditional fermentation