Two typical microbial communities from Chinese rice wine fermentation collected in Yichang city and Suzhou city in China were investigated. Both communities could ferment glutinous rice to rice wine in 2 days. The sugar and ethanol contents were 198.67 and 14.47 mg/g, respectively, for rice wine from Yichang city, and 292.50 and 12.31 mg/g, respectively, for rice wine from Suzhou city. Acetic acid and lactic acid were the most abundant organic acids. Abundant fungi and bacteria were detected in both communities by high-throughput sequencing. Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and Rhizopus oryzae were the dominant fungi in rice wine from Suzhou city, compared with R. oryzae, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Mucor indicus, and Rhizopus microsporus in rice wine from Yichang city. Bacterial diversity was greater than fungal diversity in both communities. Citrobacter was the most abundant genus. Furthermore, Exiguobacterium, Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter, Bacillus, and Lactococcus were highly abundant in both communities.
Keywords: Chinese rice wine; Rhizopus oryzae; community construction; microorganism community diversity; rice wine fermentation; yeast.