[Objective]Pre-PCR propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment is an effective approach to exclude dead cells,thus the analysis of bacterial communities can theoretically be limited to viable cells.[Methods]The effects of PMA treatment on shrimp bacterial community characteristics,as analysed by pre-PCR PMA treatment coupled with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE),were assessed.[Results]The results showed that abundance of total bacteria was lower in PMA-treated sample portions during storage at 4 ℃,Shannon-Wiener index and PCoA analysis indicated significant differences in diversity of samples treated with and without PMA.Furthermore,at the level of species,contract with sample fractions not treated with PMA,Vibrio cholera,Exiguobacterium acetylicurn,Aeromonas enteropelogenes,Eubacterium multiforme,Vibrio mimicus in PMA-treated sample fractions were disappeared during storage.In contrast,PMA treatment has little influence on banding patterns in DGGE community profiles at 25 ℃.However,PMA treatment did not result in significant differences in community evenness no matter during the storage at 4 ℃ or 25 ℃.[Conclusion]In conclusion,PMA-PCR-DGGE assay holds promise for the precise detection of viable cells,which can be precisely investigate the microbial diversity,particularly in the aspects of microbiological quality and safety analysis in food chain.