Identification and analysis of yeast community structure in Chinese light-style liquor brewing process

Abstract:

[Objective] This work aimed to explore yeast community structure and ecological diversity in making process of Chinese light-style liquor, which would be benificial for scientifically understanding of the formation mechanism of Chinese light-style liquor. [Methods] Yeast variety and quantity during making process of Chinese light-style liquor was investigated by WL medium and 26S rRNA D1/D2 region sequence analysis. [Results] Ten yeast species were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Issatchenkia orientalis, Pichia anomala, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, Pichia fermentans, Trichosporon asahii, Hanseniaspora osmophila, Pichia farinosa, Pichia membranifaciens and Clavispora lusitaniae. Among them, T. asahii, P. membranifaciens, H. osmophila, P. farinose and P. fermentans were firstly isolated in Chinese light-style liquor. Athough the quantity of S. fibuligera dominated in three types of Daqu, yeasts ecological distribution was different. There were the most amount and varieties of yeast species in Daqu of Qincha. Yeast community structure of fermented grain was also different from that of Daqu and difference also existed between fermented grain of Dacha and Ercha. S. cerevisiae was dominant at later stage of liquor fermentation, while the dominant species in Dacha and Ercha were H. osmophila and P. membranifaciens at early stage, respectively. [Conclusion] This work deeply studied the yeast distribution characteristics and community structure in making process of Chinese light-style liquor, which would show great value in scientifically understanding of the formation mechanism of Chinese light-style liquor.