Abstract:The microbial community diversity, predominant species and its related characters ofthe product were investigated during the fermentation process of pickled wax gourd using the16S rDNA clone library. The results showed that in the pickling system Enterobacter, Lactococcus and Weissella are the predominant microbial community at earlier phase. After 15 daysof fermentation, the dominant population has changed to be Pediococcus pentosaceus, on day30 Enterobacter and Pediococcus become to be the predominant species. In the later stage ofpickling, the community system is stable, and Pediococcus, Weissella and Virgibacillus arethe major microbial species. At the same time, the pH value and nitrite concentration of pickledwaxgourd samples had been decreasing, its minimum values reached 3.7 and 0.5 mg/kg, respectively. The salinity value was finally stable in 7.0%. The total population of bacteria andlactic acid bacteria (LAB) changed from the high level to stable, the population of LAB was 1.0×107 cfu/mL at the later phase of pickled. Some species including Lactococcus, Pediococcusand Virgibacillus detected in the pickled wax gourd are very significant microorganisms inkeeping the quality of the product. These experimental results can also provide the critical ba-sis for the microbial ecosystem study and quality control of pickled wax gourd processing.
