Comparison study of the volatile profiles and microbial communities of Wuyi Qu and Gutian Qu, two major types of traditional fermentation starters of Hong Qu glutinous rice wine

•A total of 66 volatiles, 215 bacteria and 151 fungi were detected from WYQ and GTQ.•The predominant bacterial genera in Hong Qu are Burkholderia and Bacillus.•Monascus purpureus is the most abundant fungal species in Hong Qu.•14 bacterial taxa and 10 fungal taxa can be utilized to distinguish WYQ and GTQ.•The correlation of volatile components and microbiota were preliminarily explored.

Hong Qu, which mainly contains Monascus sp. and other microorganisms, as well as numerous microbial metabolites, is used as the fermentation starter of Hong Qu glutinous rice wine, a traditional alcoholic beverage. Two widely-used types of Hong Qu, namely Wuyi Qu (WYQ) and Gutian Qu (GTQ), were thoroughly compared for their fermentation properties, volatile profiles, and microbiota structures in this study. Significantly higher color value, glucoamylase and α-amylase activities were discovered in WYQ. And substantial variation in volatile components and microbial communities were also observed between them. It was identified that bacterial genus Burkholderia dominated GTQ (71.62%) and Bacillus dominated WYQ (44.73%), while Monascus purpureus was the most abundant fungal species in both types of starters (76.99%). In addition, 213 bacterial genera and 150 fungal species with low-abundance were also detected. Since the Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size algorithm, 14 genus-level bacterial taxa and 10 species-level fungal taxa could be utilized to distinguish these two types of starters. Moreover, the potential correlation of the volatile components and microbiota within WYQ and GTQ were further analyzed, by utilizing Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis. Ultimately, this study provides detailed insight into the volatile profiles and microbial communities presented in Hong Qu.