Microbial community structure in fermentation process of Shaoxing rice wine by Illumina-based metagenomic sequencing

To understand the role of the community structure of microbes in the environment in the fermentation of Shaoxing rice wine, samples collected from a wine factory were subjected to Illumina-based metagenomic sequencing.

De novo assembly of the sequencing reads allowed the characterisation of more than 23 thousand microbial genes derived from 1.7 and 1.88 Gbp of sequences from two samples fermented for 5 and 30 days respectively. The microbial community structure at different fermentation times of Shaoxing rice wine was revealed, showing the different roles of the microbiota in the fermentation process of Shaoxing rice wine. The gene function of both samples was also studied in the COG database, with most genes belonging to category S (function unknown), category E (amino acid transport and metabolism) and unclassified group.

The results show that both the microbial community structure and gene function composition change greatly at different time points of Shaoxing rice wine fermentation.