Microbial-driven mechanisms of arsenic methylation during Chinese rice wine fermentation

The microbial As methylation pathway was summarized based on the annotated As functional genes from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. Higher relative abundances of glutathione S-transferase and arsC promoted the formation of more trivalent As substrates and further promoted methylation behavior for As detoxification during fermentation. According to the microbial arsM contribution analysis, Mycobacteroides, Rhizopus, and Jimgerdemannia were the primary As methylation microorganisms in Chinese rice wine. These results highlighted the specific As methylation process during fermentation, which could improve the control of As contamination in Chinese rice wines.