In order to elucidate how dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration influenced the generation of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and soluble microbial products (SMP) in mixed liquor and biocake, 16S rDNA fingerprinting analyses were performed to investigate the variation of the microbial community in an aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR). The function of microbial community structure was proved to be ultimately responsible for biofouling. Obvious microbial community succession from the subphylum of Betaproteobacteria to Deltaproteobacteria was observed in biocake. High concentration of EPS in biocake under the low DO concentration (0.5 mg L(-1)) caused severe biofouling. The correlation coefficient of membrane fouling rate with EPS content in biocake (0.9941-0.9964) was much higher than that in mixed liquor (0.6689-0.8004). (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.