Analysis of differences in tobacco leaf microbial communities after redrying in Chinese provinces and from abroad

AMB Express. 2023 Aug 1;13(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s13568-023-01580-5.

Abstract

Microorganisms play an important role in the tobacco aging process. Before the aging process, raw tobacco leaves must be threshed and redried. In order to explore the differences of microbial community structure of threshed and redried tobacco leaves from different origins at home and abroad, 14 groups of tobacco leaves from 8 different countries were tested by high-throughput DNA sequencing and microbiology analysis. Then, through amplicon sequence variants (ASV) cluster analysis, Venn diagram and species labeling and other microbial diversity analysis, the dominant bacteria and fungi on the surface of threshed and redried tobacco leaves were obtained. The results showed that there were significant differences in the composition of tobacco bacteria and fungi after threshing and redrying from different geographical areas. The relative abundance of Microbacterium and Sphingomonas in domestic tobacco leaves was significantly higher than that of foreign tobacco leaves. The relative abundance of Pseudomonas in foreign tobacco bacterial colonies was significantly higher than that of domestic tobacco leaves. In terms of fungi, the relative abundance of Aspergillus and Alternaria in domestic tobacco leaves was significantly higher than that of foreign tobacco leaves. Septoria, Sampaiozyma, Cladosporium and Phoma account for significantly higher proportions of foreign tobacco leaves. These microorganisms may be indispensable in aging process to form different flavors of tobacco leaves. It provides an important theoretical basis for the further use of microorganisms to promote tobacco leaf aging.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; Microbial community; Threshed and redried tobacco leaves; Tobacco aging.