Abstract:[Objective]To investigate the regulatory mechanism of sodium chloride sodium chloride addition level on the microbial community in yak milk hard cheese.[Method]High-throughput sequencing technology was employed to analyze the evolution of microbial communities after the addition of sodium chloride at mass fractions of 1.0%, 1.3%, 1.8%, and 2.3% during the 0~6 month maturation period.[Result]As the sodium chloride addition mass fraction decreased, the Streptococcus in the cheese first increased and then decreased, which was accompanied by a slow increase in the relative abundance of Lactococcus, an upward trend in the relative abundance of Escherichia-Shigella, an overall downward trend in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, and a rapid decreasing trend in the relative abundance of Weissella. In addition, the relative abundance of Acinetobacter, Chryseobacterium, and Pseudomonas first decreased and then increased. In the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 2.3%, Lactobacillus and Weissella were the characteristic differential bacterium genus, with their relative abundance being higher than that in other groups. In the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 1.0%, the characteristic differential bacterium genus were Lactococcus, Acinetobacter, Chryseobacterium, and Pseudomonas. Among them, the latter three genera showed evident increases in relative abundance compared with those in the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 2.3%. Their relative abundance was markedly lower in the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 1.3% than in the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 1.0%, and reached the lowest levels in the cheese with sodium chloride added at the mass fraction of 1.8%.[Conclusion]The safety and quality of low-salt yak milk hard cheese can be improved by optimizing starter cultures, controlling the quality of raw milk, moderately reducing the salt content, and inoculating appropriate beneficial bacteria.