CHARACTERIZATION OF THE AGAVE MUST FROM FERMENTATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF ARTISANAL MEZCAL USING A WHOLE METAGENOME APPROACH

Mezcal is a Mexican distilled alcoholic beverage made from plants of the Agavaceae family, particularly, from the Agave genus. During the production of artisanal mezcal, a series of environmental factors favor the growth of indigenous microorganisms, which contribute unique sensory characteristics to the final product. This research used a whole metagenome approach to analyze the microbial composition present during the fermentation of agave juice obtained from a mix composed of Bicuishe magueyes (A. karwinskii Zucc.), Madrecuishe (A. karwinskii Zucc.), Coyote (A. americana L.), and Pulquero maguey (A. salmiana Otto ex Salm.). Three samples were taken from fresh agave juice and agave juice fermented 3 and 6 days, DNA extraction was performed for sequencing using the shotgun technique and taxonomic identification with bioinformatic analysis. 66 different species were identified belonging to the bacterial genera Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Gluconobacter, Leuconostoc, Weisella, Komagataeibacter, Oenococcus, Kocuria, and the eukaryote Saccharomyces. The most abundant species in the process were Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Weissella paramesenteroides, Acetobacter malorum, Lactobacillus spicheri, Lactobacillus hilgardii, Oenococcus alcoholitolerans, Lactobacillus vaccinostercus, and Lactobacillus pantheris. The diversity of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) found in this study suggests that the fermentation developed similarly to that achieved by viticultural co-inoculation, which opens an important prospect for mezcal production with organoleptic qualities defined by a greater richness in aromatic compounds compared to those obtained from a single maguey species.