Analysis of Bacterial Diversity in Different Types of Daqu and Fermented Grains From Danquan Distillery

Bacterial communities in high-temperature Daqu and fermented grains are important for brewing Jiang-flavor Baijiu such as Danquan Baijiu. Daqu is a saccharifying and fermenting agent, which has a significant impact on the flavor of Baijiu. However, bacterial communities in three different types of samples from the Danquan distillery (dqjq_ck, dqjqcp, and dqjp3) were still unclear, which limited further development of Danquan Baijiu. “dqjq_ck” and “dqjqcp” indicate high-temperature Daqu at days 45 and 135, respectively. “dqjp3” indicates fermented grains. In this study, the bacterial communities of three samples were analyzed by Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing. The bacterial communities of three samples primarily composed of thermophilic bacteria and bacteria with stress resistance. The most abundant species in dqjq_ck, dqjqcp, and dqjp3 were Comamonas, Bacillus, and unclassified Lactobacillales, respectively. The main bacteria included Bacillus, Comamonas, Myroides, Paenibacillus, Acetobacter, Kroppenstedtia, Staphylococcus, Saccharopolyspora, Planifilum, Lactobacillus, Acinetobacter, Oceanobacillus, Enterococcus, Thermoactinomyces, Lactococcus, Streptomyces, Saccharomonospora, Tepidimicrobium, Anaerosalibacter, unclassified_Lactobacillales, unclassified_Thermoactinomycetaceae_1, unclassified_Bacillaceae_2, unclassified_Bacillales, unclassified_Microbacteriaceae, unclassified_Rhodobacteraceae, unclassified_Actinopolysporineae, and unclassified_Flavobacteriaceae in three samples (percentage was more than 1% in one of three samples). In our study, the succession of microbiota in three samples representing three important stages of Danquan Baijiu brewing was revealed. This article lays a good foundation for understanding the fermentation mechanism and screening some excellent indigenous bacteria to improve the quality of Danquan Baijiu in future.