Analyzing the quality differences between healthy and moldy cigar tobacco leaves during the air-curing process through fungal communities and physicochemical components

作者：Kejian Fu, Xueru Song, Yonghe Cui, Qi Zhou, Yuming Yin, Jilai Zhang, Hongyin Zhou, Youbo Su · 发表于：Frontiers in Microbiology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fmicb.2024.1399777 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure、Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity、Mycotoxins in Agriculture and Food

Introduction The air-curing process of cigar tobacco, as a key step in enhancing the quality of cigars, is often susceptible to contamination by mold spores, which severely constrains the quality of cigar tobacco. Methods This study employed high-throughput Illumina sequencing technology and a continuous flow analysis system to analyze the differences between the microbial communities and physicochemical components of moldy and healthy cigar tobacco leaves. Furthermore, correlation analysis was performed to reveal the impact of mold on the quality of cigar tobacco. Results The differences between the microbial flora and physicochemical compositions of moldy (MC) and healthy (HC) tobacco leaves were analyzed, revealing significant disparities between the two groups. Aspergillus spp. represented the dominant mold in MC, with nine out of twelve isolated molds showing higher quantities on MC than on HC. Mold contamination notably decreased the total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total alkaloids (TA), starch, protein, and flavor constituents while increasing the total fatty acid esters (TFAA), which was accompanied by a shift towards weakly acidic pH in the leaves. Fungal community analysis indicated a significant reduction in the fungal operational taxonomic unit (OUT) numbers and diversity indices in MC, contrasting with the bacterial trends. Aspergillus exhibited significantly higher relative abundance in MC, with LEfSe analysis pinpointing it as the primary driver of d...