Systematic study of bacterial diversity in pit mud in manufacture of Chinese strong-flavor Baijiu

The pit mud in fermentation cellar is a complex ecosystem that hosts diverse microbial communities that contribute to the production of Chinese strong-flavor Baijiu. However, the microbial ecology of PM, particularly the extent of their phylogenetic novelty remains poorly known. In this study, we conducted Illumina MiSeq sequencing to explore the diversity and novelty patterns of PM bacterial communities of fermentation cellars from Luzhou Laojiao.The data presented in this study significantly increases the number of bacteria known to be associated with Chinese Baijiu production and should help guide the future exploration of microbial resources for biotechnological applications.