Abstract: The present study was conducted in order to investigate the relationship between the diversity of the bacterial community in four naturally fermented sour meat products and their flavor qualities. The bacterial community composition was investigated by 16S rDNA V3-V4 region high throughput sequencing using Ion S5 XL sequencing platform. Meanwhile, these samples were subjected to electronic nose evaluation and solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) analysis. The results revealed that the average number of sequences per sample was 110 395. The overall bacterial community compositions of the four samples were quite complicated, including 11 phyla, among which, Firmicutes was absolutely dominant, accounting for 83.73%–98.92% of the total number, followed by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The dominant genera were Lactobacillus, Weissella and Lactococcus. A total of 126 volatile compounds were identified from four naturally fermented sour meats, including acids, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones and terpenes. There were differences in the abundance of bacterial species among the four samples and the microfloral community was closely to the production process. The bacterial diversity involved in the fermentation process was one of the most important factors shaping the flavor characteristics of traditional sour meat products. Compared to traditional methods, the information about bacterial community diversity provided by high-throughput sequencing method was closer to the microecology of the samples, which were helpful to better understand the microfloral composition of sour meat and might provide a scientific support for the modernization of the traditional food industry and food quality and safety control.

Key words: sour meat, high-throughput sequencing, bacterial community diversity, flavor, fermented meat