Dynamic changes and correlations of microbial communities, physicochemical properties, and volatile metabolites during Daqu fermentation of Taorong-type Baijiu

Abstract

Daqu is an important saccharification starter in the brewing of Chinese Baijiu. The evolution of microbial communities and flavor formation are similar among different batches of Daqu, but the drivers of microbial community succession, the composition of functional microbiota, and metabolic pathways are still unclear. To this end, the microbial community succession, physicochemical properties and volatile metabolites dynamic changes and their correlation during the fermentation process of Taorong-type Baijiu Daqu were analyzed. The results showed that the core microbial genera observed in the whole period were Bacillus, Kroppenstedtia, Microbacterium, Thermoascus, Saccharomycopsis, and Apiotrichum. The correlation analysis showed moisture content and acidity drove the evolution of function