Bacterial community diversity of traditional fermented vegetables in China

Bacterial community composition influences the formation of flavourful substances in fermented foods. However, the bacterial structure of fermented vegetables from different origins has scarcely been reported. Here, 10 different fermented vegetables of Chinese origin were collected to explore the bacterial community diversity using 16S rDNA sequencing. Of these samples, the number of identified operational taxonomic units (OTUs) ranged from 107 to 290, which could be categorized into 12 phyla, 21 classes, 52 orders, 97 families, 223 genera and 348 species. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the top two dominant phyla with a relative abundance of 88.2–99.3% of the total OTUs. Meanwhile, Lactobacillus alimentarius, L. versmoldensis, Bacillus and unclassified Weissella spp. were detected as the predominant Firmicutes bacteria, while Chromohalobacter japonicus, Halomonas jeotgali, Pediococcus and unclassified Vibrio spp. were the most abundant proteus bacteria. Hierarchical cluster and principal component analysis indicated that the 10 samples could be grouped into three groups, with the main two components explaining 49.1 and 28.6% of the total variance. These results indicated a high level of diversity in the bacterial community structure in traditional fermented vegetables and demonstrated the possible influences of manufacturing location and conditions, and/or the type of raw material, on bacterial diversity.