Exploring of seasonal dynamics of microbial community in multispecies fermentation of Shanxi mature vinegar

The constituents of fermentation foods vary seasonally and the microbiota plays a crucial role in metabolites formation. Here, the diversity and succession of microbiota of Shanxi mature vinegar produced with solid–solid fermentation craft have been investigated by Illumina Hiseq sequencing in both summer and winter. Obvious differences were observed in the structure of microbiota between summer and winter, and the bacterial community showed a significant difference (P < 0.05). Alpha diversity analysis showed that the diversity and richness of bacterial community were basically higher than that of fungal community in both summer and winter. For bacterial community, Lactobacillus and Limosilactobacillus were the two major group bacteria in the fermentation process of Shanxi mature vinegar in summer, and they dominated in acetic acid fermentation and alcoholic fermentation stages, respectively. Lactobacillus and Acetobacter were the two major group bacteria during the fermentation of Shanxi mature vinegar in winter. Saccharomyces, Saccharomycopsis, and Issatchenkia were the main yeasts in both seasons, while the dominant mould was Rhizopus in summer and Monascus in winter, respectively. The diversity of yeasts and moulds in winter was far greater than that in summer, especially in alcoholic fermentation stage. Collectively, our work revealed critical insights into effect of seasonal variation on the structure of microbiota of Shanxi mature vinegar, and was relevant in understanding the relationships between environmental change and microbiota. •The microbiota structures were obviously different between summer and winter.•Bacterial community was more abundant and diverse than fungal community.•A relatively low acetic conversion rate existed in summer.•Lactobacillus had a highest relative abundance of 98.38% in winter.•Moulds and yeasts played more important role in producing grain alcohol in winter.