Characterization of the contaminant bacterial communities in sugarcane first-generation industrial ethanol production

Abstract The industrial ethanolic fermentation process is operated in distilleries, either in fed-batch or continuous mode. A consequence of the large industrial ethanol production is bacterial contamination in the fermentation tanks, which is responsible for significant economic losses. To investigate this community, we accessed the profile of bacterial contaminant from two distilleries in Brazil, each operating a different fermentation mode, throughout sugarcane harvest of 2013–2014. Bacterial communities were accessed through Illumina culture-independent 16S rDNA gene sequencing, and qPCR was used to quantify total bacteria abundance. Both ethanol production modes showed similar bacterial abundance, around 105 gene copies/mL. 16S rDNA sequencing showed that 92%–99% of the sequences affiliated to Lactobacillus genus. Operational taxonomic units differently represented belonged mainly to Lactobacillus, but also to Weissella, Pediococcus, Acetobacter and Anaeosporobacter, although in lower abundance. Alpha-diversity only showed a correlation through the fermentation tanks in continuous mode, where it was always higher in the second and third tanks. Beta-diversity clearly separated the two distilleries and metagenome prediction reinforces clusterization within distilleries. Despite certain variations between bacterial community in the distilleries throughout harvest season, Lactobacillus were the main genera reported in both distilleries and bacterial community seemed to persist along time, suggesting bacterial reinfestation. Metagenomics applied to ethanol distilleries.