Comparative analysis of microbial communities and volatile flavor components in the brewing of rice wines fermented with different starters.

As one of the quintessential representatives of Chinese rice wine, rice wine is brewed with glutinous rice as the main raw material and (Gutian or Wuyi ) as the fermentation starter. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of on the volatile compositions and the microbial communities in the traditional production of Gutian rice wine (GT) and Wuyi rice wine (WY). Through the OPLS-DA analysis, 3-methylbutan-1-ol, isobutanol, ethyl lactate, ethyl acetate, octanoic acid, diethyl succinate, phenylethyl alcohol, hexanoic acid and n-decanoic acid were identified as the characteristic volatile flavor components between GT and WY. Microbiome analysis revealed significant enrichments of , , and in WY brewing, whereas , , , and were significantly enriched in GT brewing. Additionally, correlation analysis showed that , , and were significantly positively correlated wih most characteristic volatile components. Conversely, , , and showed significant negative correlations with most of the characteristic volatile components. Furthermore, bioinformatical analysis indicated that the gene abundances for enzymes including glucan 1,4-alpha-glucosidase, carboxylesterase, alcohol dehydrogenase, dihydroxy-acid dehydratase and branched-chain-amino-acid transaminase were significantly higher in WY compared to GT. This finding explains the higher content of higher alcohols and characteristic esters in WY relative to GT. Collectively, this study provides a theoretical basis for improving the flavor profile of rice wine and establishing a solid scientific foundation for the sustainable development of rice wine industry.