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Objectives: Fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) and citrus pectin (CP) are soluble fibers with different chemical composition. However, their fermentation pattern in large intestine remains unclear., Methods: An in vitro batch fermentation using colonic digesta from pigs as inoculum was employed to investigate the fermentation dynamics of FOS and CP. The monosaccharides and SCFAs contents were assayed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Gas Chromatography, respectively. And the microbiota community was assessed by 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing., Results: The decline of monosaccharides in both substrates after 6 h, especially to a neglected level in FOS. FOS showed higher abundances of butyrate-producing bacteria such as Eubacterium rectale, Roseburia faecis and Coprococcus comes and butyrate compared to CP. CP stimulated the growth of pectinolytic microbe Lachnospira pectinoschiza, succinate-producing bacteria Succinivibrio dextrinosolvens, succinate-utilizing bacteria Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens and the production of acetate and propionate compared to FOS. Moreover, the relative abundances of key enzymes (e.g. butyrate kinase) involving in butyrate formation via the butyrate kinase route were upregulated in the FOS group. And the key enzymes (e.g. acetyl-CoA synthetase) associated with propionate production through the succinate pathway were upregulated in the CP group., Conclusions: FOS was preferred to ferment by butyrate-producing bacteria to yield a higher level of butyrate via the butyrate kinase pathway, while CP enhanced the cross-feeding of succinate-producing and succinate-utilizing bacteria to form propionate through the succinate pathway. These findings deepen our understanding on the fermentation characteristics of the soluble fibers, and also provide guidelines for fiber choice in precisely modulating the microbial composition and metabolism in large intestine., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)