The dynamics of microbial community and flavor metabolites during the acetic acid fermentation of Hongqu aromatic vinegar

Wen-Long Li; Shan-Gong Tong; Zi-Yi Yang; Yan-Qin Xiao; Xu-Cong Lv; Qi Weng; Kui Yu; Gui-Rong Liu; Xiao-Qing Luo; Tao Wei; Jin-Zhi Han; Lian-Zhong Ai; Li Ni

doi:10.1016/j.crfs.2022.10.002

The dynamics of microbial community and flavor metabolites during the acetic acid fermentation of Hongqu aromatic vinegar

Curr Res Food Sci. 2022 Oct 4:5:1720-1731. doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2022.10.002. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Wen-Long Li^{1

2}, Shan-Gong Tong², Zi-Yi Yang^{1

2}, Yan-Qin Xiao², Xu-Cong Lv^{1

2}, Qi Weng³, Kui Yu³, Gui-Rong Liu⁴, Xiao-Qing Luo³, Tao Wei³, Jin-Zhi Han^{1

2}, Lian-Zhong Ai⁵, Li Ni^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Food Nutrition and Health Research Center, School of Advanced Manufacturing, Fuzhou University, Jinjiang, Fujian, 362200, PR China.
² Institute of Food Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108, PR China.
³ Fujian Salt Industry Group Co., Ltd., Fuzhou, Fujian, 350001, PR China.
⁴ Fujian Minyan Food Technology Co., Ltd., Sanming, Fujian, 365500, PR China.
⁵ School of Medical Instruments and Food Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, PR China.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the dynamics of microbial community and flavor metabolites during the traditional fermentation of Hongqu aromatic vinegar (HAV) and subsequently explored the potential relationship between microbiota and flavor metabolites. The microbiome analysis based on high-throughput sequencing (HTS) of amplicons demonstrated that Lactobacillus, Acetobacter and Clostridium were the dominant bacterial genera, while Alternaria, Candida, Aspergillus and Issatchenkia were the dominant fungal genera during the acetic acid fermentation (AAF) of HAV. A total of 101 volatile flavor compounds were identified through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) during HAV fermentation, including esters (35), alcohols (17), aldehydes (11), acids (11), ketones (7), phenols (10), and others (10). Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to reveal the correlation between microbiota and volatile flavor compounds. Lactobacillus and Acetobacter were the two bacterial genera that have the great influence on the production of volatile flavor components in HAV. Among them, Lactobacillus was positively correlated with a variety of ethyl esters, while Acetobacter positively contributed to the formation of several organic acids. Furthermore, the non-volatile metabolites were detected by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS). A total of 41 dipeptides were identified during HAV fermentation, and most of them may have sensory characteristics and biological activities. RDA showed that Aspergillus, Epicoccum, Issatchenkia, Candida and Malassezia were the most influential fungal genera on non-volatile metabolites. In particular, Epicoccum was first reported in Hongqu vinegar and showed a positive correlation with the production of various organic acids. In conclusion, this study provides a scientific basis for understanding the flavor generation mechanism of HAV, and may be valuable for developing effective techniques to select suitable strains to improve the flavor quality of HAV.

Keywords: C; F; Hongqu aromatic vinegar; Microbial dynamics; T; lavor metabolites; orrelation analysis; raditional fermentation.