Abstract:To profile the changes in the microbial community during Sichuan bran vinegar fermentation, polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) was employed to analyze the diversity of bacteria and fungi during the solid-state fermentation process. The results showed that during the fermentation, the dominant fungi were Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, Issatchenkia hanoiensis, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium oxalicum, and uncultured fungus, and the main bacteria were Lactobacillus acidophilus, Gluconacetobacter obediens, Acetobacter pasteurianus, Acidomonas methanolica, uncultured bacterium, uncultured Bacillus sp., and uncultured Lactobacillus sp. Thus, the PCR-DGGE technique allowed identifying a variety of uncultured microorganisms in the fermentation substrate. The microbial flora during the fermentation was complex, with different microorganisms dominating at different phases of the process; however, the overall microbial structure did not change significantly during the fermentation process.