{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:01:29Z","timestamp":1792789289766,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin","award":["25JJJJC0021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["25JJJJC0021"]}]},{"name":"Shanxi Province Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Guidance Special Program","award":["202304021301002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202304021301002"]}]},{"name":"Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province","award":["202303021211022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202303021211022"]}]},{"name":"the earmarked fund for the Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System","award":["2026CYJSTX10-12"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026CYJSTX10-12"]}]},{"name":"Xinghuacun College of Shanxi University","award":["XCSXU-KF-202309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XCSXU-KF-202309"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03y3e3s17","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["XCSXU-KF-202309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XCSXU-KF-202309"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03y3e3s17","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Foods"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Daqu used in the alcoholic fermentation of Shanxi aged vinegar (SAV) is technologically related to the medium-temperature Daqu used for Baijiu production, but variation in vinegar Daqu quality can lead to unstable saccharification, alcoholic fermentation and aroma formation. We therefore hypothesized that functional microorganisms selected from Light-Flavor Baijiu Daqu could be combined with isolates from vinegar fermentation to improve the alcoholic fermentation stage of SAV, and that a defined consortium would provide a controllable system in which to test this hypothesis. Twenty culturable microorganisms were isolated from Daqu and Jiupei (fermented grains). Six were preselected on the basis of taxonomic identity, fermentation-related function and intended functional complementarity, namely Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia kudriavzevii, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lentilactobacillus buchneri and Ligilactobacillus amylovorus; their growth, stress tolerance, ethanol production and acid production were then characterized to assess their suitability for consortium construction. Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was used to profile the volatile compounds produced during fermentation of the resulting synthetic microbial consortium (SMC) in a liquid sorghum-juice medium and to compare them with those of industrial alcoholic fermentation (IAF) of fermented grains. All experiments used three independent biological replicates, and concentrations are reported as semi-quantitative 2-octanol equivalents. Several major volatile compounds accumulated earlier in the SMC than in the IAF system: ethanol (0.741 mg\/mL) and ethyl acetate (0.331 mg\/mL) both peaked on day 3, and the day-3 ethyl acetate concentration in the SMC already exceeded the maximum value reached in the IAF system on day 7 (0.238 mg\/mL). The SMC nevertheless produced fewer volatile compounds (30) than the IAF system (45) and lacked long-chain fatty acid ethyl esters, whereas multivariate analysis indicated that its volatile profile became progressively more uniform during the mid-to-late fermentation stages. Because the two systems differ in substrate composition, physical structure and mass transfer, these findings should not be read as evidence that the SMC outperforms industrial solid-state fermentation. Within that constraint, the SMC reproduced selected metabolic features of SAV alcoholic fermentation in a liquid model system and reached maximum concentrations of several major volatile compounds earlier than the industrial system examined, offering a starting point for the rational design of defined starter consortia for traditional vinegar production.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/foods15183286","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T09:59:03Z","timestamp":1789639143000},"page":"3286","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Directional Construction of a Synthetic Microbial Consortium for Shanxi Aged Vinegar: Metabolic Kinetics and Accelerated Formation of Major Volatile Compounds"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Xuefeng","family":"Zhu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Vinegar Fermentation Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Special Sorghum Breeding and Processing (Shanxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanxi Zilin Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030400, China"},{"name":"Biomedicine and Health Laboratory in Shanxi Province, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanxi Key Laboratory of Bioengineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Limin","family":"Cui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Biomedicine and Health Laboratory in Shanxi Province, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanxi Key Laboratory of Bioengineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China"},{"name":"Shanxi Songjiagou Functional Food Co., Ltd., Xinzhou 036300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xianxian","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Vinegar Fermentation Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Special Sorghum Breeding and Processing (Shanxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanxi Zilin Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030400, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Fanfan","family":"Lang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Vinegar Fermentation Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Special Sorghum Breeding and Processing (Shanxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanxi Zilin Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030400, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4554-9908","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yu","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Vinegar Fermentation Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Special Sorghum Breeding and Processing (Shanxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanxi Zilin Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030400, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Bio-Based Fiber Materials, School of Biological Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2000-6296","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhiqiang","family":"Nie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Vinegar Fermentation Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Special Sorghum Breeding and Processing (Shanxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanxi Zilin Flavoring and Food Co., Ltd., Taiyuan 030400, China"},{"name":"Biomedicine and Health Laboratory in Shanxi Province, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Shanxi Key Laboratory of Bioengineering, Institute of Biotechnology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8612","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-018-26787-6","article-title":"Dynamic microbial succession of Shanxi aged vinegar and its correlation with flavor metabolites during different stages of acetic acid fermentation","volume":"8","author":"Zhu","year":"2018","journal-title":"Sci. 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