Comparative microbial and metabolite profiles of air-dried beef jerky and air-dried mutton jerky under identical natural drying conditions

Microbial communities are central to flavor development in air-dried meats; however, whether similar microbial assemblages produce comparable metabolic outputs across different raw substrates under identical natural conditions remains unresolved. We hypothesized that beef and mutton matrices would differentially reorganize microbial–metabolite interaction networks despite environmental consistency. Air-dried beef jerky and air-dried mutton jerky produced under identical natural conditions in Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia, were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing combined with derivatization-based GC–MS metabolomics. Both products exhibited highly similar community structures dominated by Lactobacillus (17–19%) and Halomonas (13–16%), yet substrate-associated enrichment was observed, with Staphylococcus prevailing in air-dried beef jerky and Ruminococcus and Enterobacter enriched in air-dried mutton jerky. Metabolomic profiling demonstrated clear interspecies separation, with 404 of 838 shared metabolites differing significantly (VIP > 1, P < 0.05), mainly involving amino acids, organic acids, and lipid-related compounds. Correlation analysis based on centered log-ratio transformation and Spearman's rank tests with FDR correction revealed structured positive–negative complementary association patterns among dominant genera. Genera such as Halomonas and Kocuria were predominantly positively associated with core metabolites, whereas Ruminococcus , Serratia , and Clostridia_UCG-014 exhibited opposing negative associations, forming coordinated metabolic complementarity networks. The specific metabolites involved differed between Air-dried beef jerky and air-dried mutton jerky, indicating substrate-dependent reorganization of microbial–metabolic linkages. These findings demonstrate that raw material composition reshapes metabolic outcomes despite similar microbial frameworks, providing mechanistic insight into species-specific flavor formation in traditional air-dried meats. • Beef and mutton showed matrix-dependent microbial differences. • Lactobacillus abundance correlated with flavor-related metabolites. • Beef exhibited broader amino acid and lipid-related metabolites. • Genus–metabolite associations differed between meat matrices.