Abstract: The microbial diversity and functional genes related to flavor formation in solid-state fermented jujube mash for jujube wine were analyzed by metagenomics. The results showed that 37 bacteria phyla, 1 247 genera and 3 937 species were identified, the core ones being Lactobacillus buchneri, L. plantarum and L. parabuchneri. A total of 6 269 and 238 860 genes were annotated in the Cluster of Orthologous Group (COG) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases, respectively, and the prominent pathways were carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism. According to the results of annotation in the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZy) database, the number of glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases accounted for the highest percentage (70%) of the active carbohydrate enzymes in the fermented mash. For carbohydrate metabolism, 442 genes controlling different carbohydrate transporter systems were found, including those encoding the key enzymes catalyzing intracellular D-1-phosphate fructose, 6-phosphate sucrose and gluconate into glycolysis intermediates. Meanwhile, 171 branch-chain amino transferase, 288 ketoacid invertase, 319 alcohol/aldehyde dehydrogenase and 144 acetylesterase-controlling genes were identified as the basis for the formation of rich flavor substances from amino acids.

Key words: fermented mash; metagenomics; microbial diversity; flavor; functional genes