Abstract: In order to explore the change of bacterial community structure during the processing of western-style low-sodium fermented ham, the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was sequenced by Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology. Taxonomic analysis showed that the bacterial community in all samples consisted of 31 phyla and 664 genera. Firmicutes was the most dominant phylum in the low-sodium fermented ham and Staphylococcus was the most dominant genus. Physicochemical analysis showed that salt content, water content and pH had significant effects on the bacterial community structure. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis indicated differences in amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism and human disease-related metabolism pathways between the low-sodium and control groups on the 290th day of fermentation. These results will provide a reference for the development of microbial starters to improve the quality of low-sodium meat products and increase the fermentation efficiency.

Key words: western-style low-sodium fermented ham; high-throughput sequencing; bacterial flora; metabolic pathway