微生物在酒窖产酒中起着重要作用,在长期的发酵过程中,窖泥微生物与周围环境相互作用,逐渐形成独特的群落结构. 为快速定量分析窖泥中优势微生物种群的具体拷贝数及其与环境因子的作用关系,本研究通过实时荧光定量PCR(qPCR)技术,对不同窖龄的窖泥中古菌、总细菌及优势菌群瘤胃菌(Ruminococcaceae)、乳杆菌(Lactobacillaceae)和毛螺旋菌(Lachnospiraceae)进行定量分析,同时对相应窖泥的重要理化指标己酸、丁酸、乙酸、乳酸和pH进行检测. 结果表明:随着窖龄增加,古菌小幅增多,细菌总数变化不明显. 具体的细菌菌群数量(copies/g),瘤胃菌科数量由2.38 × 1011增至5.37 × 1011,毛螺旋菌科由2.4 × 1010增至3.87 × 1012,而乳杆菌科却由4.12 × 1011明显减少到5.18 × 1010. 冗余分析(RDA)表明,窖泥中己酸含量与瘤胃菌、毛螺旋菌和古菌呈正相关性,而与乳杆菌负相关. 这些结果表明,qPCR技术可用于窖泥微生物区系特定种群的快速定量检测,该方法进一步结合代谢产物指标可用于窖池中未(难)培养微生物种群的功能分析和评定.
Microbes in pit mud play a key role in the production of Chinese strong-flavor liquor (CSFL). In the long-time process of fermentation and enrichment, interaction of microbes with the surrounding environment leads to formation of unique microbial community in pit mud. This paper attempted to analyze the function of uncultured microbial population combined with the fermentation products by realtime fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR). In our study, qPCR was applied to quantify the copy numbers of Archaea, total bacteria, Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae and Lactobacillaceae in different pit mud which had been continuously used for 3, 13, 25 years respectively. Meanwhile, we measured the concentration of some fermentation products in pit mud such as acetate, lactate, butyric acid and caproic acid, to investigate the relationship between these microbes and the fermentation products. The results showed that with the increase of cellar age, the copies of Archaea increased slightly but insignificantly, the number of total bacteria kept stable; Lachnospiraceae increased obviously from 2.4 × 10^10 to 3.87 × 10&12; Ruminococcaceae increased from 2.38 × 10^11 to 5.37 × 10^11. In contrast, Lactobacillaceae reduced clearly from 4.12 × 1011 to 5.18 × 10^10. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that caproic acid was positively correlated with Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Archaea, but negatively related to the Lactobacillaceae. These results indicate that the qPCR technology can be used in the rapid quantitative detection of microbial population in pit mud, which is considered as an important biological factor influencing the quality of CSFL. Combined with metabolite indexes, the method can be used for assaying the function of uncultured microbial population in pit mud.