Abstract: In this study, the diversity of microbial community during the fermentation of light-flavor Baijiu with mixed-strain Xiaoqu was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that a total of 35 bacterial phyla and 378 genera as well as four fungal phyla and 38 genera were detected. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Ascomycota and Mucoromycota were the dominant phyla. The microbial community structure kept changing during the fermentation process. Unidentified Rickettsiales was the dominant genus over the first two days; Lactobacillus was the dominant genus from day 3 until the end of fermentation. The dominant fungal genera were Issatchenkia, Rhizopus, Saccharomyces and Aspergilus. The relative abundance of Rhizopus and Aspergilus decreased with the increase in fermentation time, while the relative abundance of Saccharomyces increased from day 2 onwards to become dominant. These results provide theoretical support for the brewing of Baijiu with mixed-strain Xiaoqu.

Key words: mixed-strain Xiaoqu; high-throughput sequencing; bacterial community; fungal community; microbial community diversity