Metagenomics and untargeted metabolomics analyses to unravel the formation mechanism of characteristic metabolites in Cantonese soy sauce during different fermentation stages

Cantonese soy sauce (CSS) is an important Chinese condiment due to its distinctive flavor. Microorganisms play a signiffcant role in the flavor formation of CSS during fermentation. However, the correlation between microbes and flavor compounds as well as the potential fermentation mechanism remained poorly uncovered. Here we revealed the dynamic changes of microbial structure and characteristics metabolites as well as their correlation of CSS during the fermentation process. Metagenomics sequencing analysis showed that Tetragenococcus halophilus, Weissella confusa, Weissella paramesenteroides, Aspergillus oryzae, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Weissella cibaria were top six dominant species from day 0 to day 120. Sixty compounds were either positively or tentatively identiffed through untargeted metabolomics proffle and they were 27 peptides, amino acids and derivatives, 8 carbohydrates and conjugates, 14 organic acids and derivatives, 5 amide compounds, 3 flavonoids and 3 nucleosides. Spearman correlation coefffcient indicated that Tetragenococcus halophilus, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, Pediococcus pentosaceus and Aspergillus oryzae were signiffcantly related with the formation of taste amino acids and derivatives, peptides and functional substances. Additionally, the metabolisms of flavor amino acids including 13 main free amino acids were also proffled. These results provided valuable information for the production practice in the soy sauce industry.