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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1540118

Deciphering the Fungal Symphony: Unveiling the Fungal Dynamics during the fermentation of traditional Chinese strong-flavor Daqu

Provisionally accepted
Lina Zhao Lina Zhao Wenjing Zhang Wenjing Zhang Xiaohan Chen Xiaohan Chen Yuting Niu Yuting Niu Jiuyang Guo Jiuyang Guo Wu Ying Wu Ying Xuan Li Xuan Li Shaobin Gu Shaobin Gu *
  • Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Daqu, a starter culture rich in microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, is central to vinification and liquor brewing, yet fungal contributions are often understudied. In this study, we used Illumina MiSeq sequencing to investigate the succession of fungal community during Chinese strong-flavor liquor fermentation. The results showed that the alpha and beta diversity of fungal community were significantly different during Daqu fermentation. The dominant phyla and genera are Ascomycota and Saccharomycopsis, respectively. Co-occurrence network analysis identified 10 keystone species during Daqu fermentation, displaying that the positive correlations (99.64%) dominated the fungal network. The redundancy analysis showed that moisture has the most significant influence on the Daqu fungal community. Concurrently, a robust association was observed between 10 keystone fungal genera and environmental parameters such as acidity and moisture. These findings not only elucidated the intricate dynamics of the fungal community succession and the interplays among fungi but also pinpointed the primary drivers of the fungal community and its keystone species during the Daqu 2 fermentation process. Ultimately, this research presented novel perspectives for enhancing the quality and precision of liquor production by shedding light on the central role of keystone species in maintaining community stability and their adaptive responses to environmental stimuli.

    Keywords: Daqu, Fermentation, fungal community, keystone species, interaction relationship 1

    Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhang, Chen, Niu, Guo, Ying, Li and Gu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shaobin Gu, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.