Abstract: To investigate the diversity and dynamics of microbial communities in hairtail from different oceans during chilled storage. high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the microbial communities of hairtail samples from different oceans in southeast China. The results showed that there were great differences in the microbial community structures of fresh hairtail samples from different geographical regions. At the genus level, Psychrobacter, Thermus and Oceanisphaera were the dominant bacteria in the samples from Nantong. Meanwhile, a wide variety of bacterial genera were found in the samples from Zhoushan and the relative abundances of seven different genera were similar, about 10%. After being refrigerated for 6–8 days, Psychrobacter and Oceanisphaera became the dominant spoilage bacteria in the samples from both regions. The relative abundances of the two genera exceeded 89%. The microbial community diversity and microbial community structure changes during the refrigerated storage of hairtail showed potential food safety risks. The findings of this study can provide experimental data for food safety monitoring during refrigerated storage of hairtail and its preservation.

Key words: hairtail, high-throughput sequencing, Psychrobacter, Oceanisphaera