Characteristic metabolites drive the self-assembly of microeukaryotic communities during spontaneous fermentation of icewine

Abstract

Wine can be regarded as a nutritional source for the human diet. It contains many nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, organic acids, flavonoids, and terpenoids. The varietal aroma of wines originated from the symbionts of the grapes and epiphytic microbiota, which combinedly grew from the sexual reproduction of the plant through seeds or during clonal reproduction. Nowadays, more and more studies focus on the assembly process of epiphytic microbiota and design a synthetic microbial community based on regional characteristics to improve wine quality and biofunctions. This review synthesizes the current concepts on the construction of synthetic microbiota, analyzes the advantages and difficulties in designing a functional yeast community, and lists the practical tools for data processing and model construction. A well-designed yeast community will possess high robustness against environment interference, higher efficiency of fermentation, and higher yield of targeted bioproducts.