Wen Zhang, Wei Yu-Hua, Han Da-Yong, Song Liang, Zhu Hai-Yan, Guo Liang-Chen, Chen Shen-Xi, Lin Bin, He Chao-Jiu, Guo Zheng-Xiang, Han Pei-Jie, Bai Feng-Yan
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China.
College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China.
Curr Res Food Sci. 2025 Apr 25;10:101063. doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2025.101063. eCollection 2025.
Medium-temperature Daqu (MTD) serves as the saccharification and fermentation starter for Nongxiangxing Baijiu. Flipping Daqu (FD) during fermentation is a key craft in traditional MTD preparation. However, the mechanism underlying this flipping craft remains unclear. To address this, we systematically compared FD with non-flipping Daqu (NFD) to elucidate microbial succession dynamics, metabolic phenotypes, and environmental drivers. Our results demonstrated divergent microbial community succession patterns between FD and NFD during the stable fermentation phase (days 9-25). FD exhibited significantly higher enzyme activities and volatile ketone content, along with lower core temperatures compared to NFD. Metabolite production in FD was influenced by both bacteria and fungi, whereas fungi predominantly controlled metabolite production in NFD. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the microbial community in FD was simpler yet more stable compared to that in NFD. Microbial succession in MTD was primarily driven by interspecies interactions and environmental factors. Furthermore, deterministic processes and stochastic processes jointly governed microbial assembly both FD and NFD, with temperature, moisture, and acidity as the key driving factors. These findings highlight the pivotal role of the flipping crafts in enhancing microbial functionality and metabolic diversity, offering a theoretical basis for optimizing MTD production and advancing intelligent fermentation systems.
中温大曲是浓香型白酒的糖化发酵剂。发酵过程中翻曲是传统中温大曲制备的关键工艺。然而，这种翻曲工艺的潜在机制尚不清楚。为了解决这个问题，我们系统地比较了翻曲大曲（FD）和不翻曲大曲（NFD），以阐明微生物演替动态、代谢表型和环境驱动因素。我们的结果表明，在稳定发酵阶段（第9 - 25天），FD和NFD之间存在不同的微生物群落演替模式。与NFD相比，FD表现出显著更高的酶活性和挥发性酮含量，以及更低的核心温度。FD中的代谢产物产生受细菌和真菌的共同影响，而NFD中的代谢产物产生主要由真菌控制。共现网络分析表明，与NFD相比，FD中的微生物群落更简单但更稳定。中温大曲中的微生物演替主要由种间相互作用和环境因素驱动。此外，确定性过程和随机过程共同控制着FD和NFD中的微生物组装，温度、湿度和酸度是关键驱动因素。这些发现突出了翻曲工艺在增强微生物功能和代谢多样性方面的关键作用，为优化中温大曲生产和推进智能发酵系统提供了理论依据。
