Abstract: This study aimed to figure out the evolution of the microbial community in traditional Sichuan Paocai brine. A fermentation process model of Sichuan Paocai was proposed. The microbial community composition and diversity at different fermentation stages (from the first to twentieth generation) of Sichuan Paocai were detected by high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that seven bacterial phyla were found in the Paocai brine, Firmicutes (94.64%) and Proteobacteria (2.73%) being the dominant?ones. The fungal community mainly consisted of three phyla?and one unclassified population, among which Ascomycota was the dominant fungus (99.93%). There were seven bacterial genera with contents above 0.1% identified in the?Paocai brine, including Lactobacillus, Raoultella, Citrobacter and Lactococcus. The major fungal genus found was Kazachstania (more than 99%). Furthermore, this study showed that the diversity of bacteria and fungi in the?Paocai brine decreased with increasing generation of fermentation, and the microbial community gradually became stable, with Lactobacillus being the main bacterial genus and Kazachstania being the main fungus.

Key words: Sichuan Paocai, Paocai brine, high-throughput sequencing, microbial diversity, different generations