The Biogeography of Fungal Communities Across Different Chinese Wine-Producing Regions Associated With Environmental Factors and Spontaneous Fermentation Performance

Abstract

Chinese Marselan grapes are believed to possess the potential to become a characteristic regional variety, whose quality is internationally recognized. The fermentation-related mycobiota from six climatically diverse Marselan-producing regions in China were analyzed via high-throughput sequencing (HTS), while the influence of environmental factors was evaluated as well. The results implied that the phyla Ascomycota and genus Aureobasidium dominated the fungal communities in 166 Marselan must and fermented samples. Significant differences were detected in the fungal microbiota from the regions, as well as the wineries, while these discrepancies decreased as the fermentation progressed. Moreover, the discrepancy in fungal communities between the wineries exceeded the variation involving the regions. Geoclimatic elements (Gc) and physicochemical indexes (Pi) exerted a significant effect on the fungal must consortium, explaining 58.17% of the taxonomic information. Furthermore, a correlation was proposed between the spontaneous fermentation performance and their association with fungal taxonomic composition. In addition to depicting a fundamental landscape of fungal biogeography patterns across Chinese main wine-producing regions, we firstly proposed the correlation between the must polyphenol content and fungal microbiota, which may provide a new strategy for harnessing autochthonous “microbial terroir.”

Identifying the Main Drivers in Microbial Diversity for Cabernet Sauvignon Cultivars from Europe to South Africa: Evidence for a Cultivar-Specific Microbial Fingerprint

“…Country of origin, the region of isolation of the samples, is the most influential layer. This evidence confirms what has been reported in other studies, where both single- and multiple-cultivar analysis highlighted that fungal microbiome correlates with regional grape microbial patterns [ 5 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 17 , 18 , 20 ]. Since the initial treatment of the data, datasets coming from the different localizations show specific characteristics in the form of different abundances, richness, or number of unidentified fungi.…”

“…Different single-cultivar studies analyzed intra-varietal microbial differences within smaller [ 6 , 8 , 10 , 16 ] or larger [ 4 , 5 , 9 , 15 , 17 , 18 ] areas, focusing on bacterial [ 8 , 10 ] or fungal [ 6 , 9 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] composition, or analyzing both groups of microorganisms [ 4 , 5 ]. In particular, some works estimated the differences in microbial biodiversity linked to vineyard management and spatial or biological niches (bulk, fruit, leaves, and soil) [ 5 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. The results demonstrated that species richness and biodiversity are influenced by viticultural practices [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 16 ], and operational taxonomic units (OTU) peculiar to specific farming system were described [ 6 , 19 ].…”

“…The data suggest that weather and soil properties affect the must fungal diversity, confirming what has been reported in other large-scale studies where mainly precipitation and C/N ratios could be considered predictors of soil fungal richness and community composition. Finally, Li et al [ 18 ] reported distribution patterns of fungal communities at the regional level in Chinese wines from Marselan grape. The results showed that some fungi could be considered regional biomarkers because their relative abundance changed across six regions.…”

Indigenous Saccharomyces cerevisiae Could Better Adapt to the Physicochemical Conditions and Natural Microbial Ecology of Prince Grape Must Compared with Commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae FX10

“…In Prince grape must, the most abundant genus was Hanseniaspora . In addition, fungal genera such as Starmerella , Cladosporium and Alternaria , which were common in Chinese wine-producing regions, were also detected in grape must [ 21 ]. With the progress of wine fermentation, the two groups of S. cerevisiae rapidly proliferated and dominated the alcoholic fermentation.…”

“…The main fungal communities in Cannonau grape must in the Sardinia region of Italy were Aureobasidium , Alternaria and Hanseniaspora [ 28 ]. For Marselan grape must, the dominant fungal communities in the Huailai wine-producing region of China were Aureobasidium and Alternaria [ 21 ]. We analyzed the fungal genera in Prince grape must, and the results showed that Hanseniaspora and Cladosporium were the dominant fungal genera in the grape must.…”