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Current Microbiology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-018-1525-x
Species Diversity and Functional Prediction of Surface Bacterial
Communities on Aging Flue-Cured Tobaccos
Fan Wang
1
· Hongwei Zhao
1
· Haiying Xiang
2
· Lijun Wu
2
· Xiao Men
1
· Chang Qi
1
· Guoqiang Chen
1
· Haibo Zhang
1
·
Yi Wang
2
· Mo Xian
1
Received: 16 February 2018 / Accepted: 1 June 2018
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
Microbes on aging flue-cured tobaccos (ATFs) improve the aroma and other qualities desirable in products. Understanding
the relevant organisms would picture microbial community diversity, metabolic potential, and their applications. However,
limited efforts have been made on characterizing the microbial quality and functional profiling. Herein, we present our
investigation of the bacterial diversity and predicted potential genetic capability of the bacteria from two AFTs using 16S
rRNA gene sequences and phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt)
software. The results show that dominant bacteria from AFT surfaces were classified into 48 genera, 36 families, and 7 phyla.
In addition, Bacillus spp. was found prevalent on both ATFs. Furthermore, PICRUSt predictions of bacterial community
functions revealed many attractive metabolic capacities in the AFT microbiota, including several involved in the biosynthe-
sis of flavors and fragrances and the degradation of harmful compounds, such as nicotine and nitrite. These results provide
insights into the importance of AFT bacteria in determining product qualities and indicate specific microbial species with
predicted enzymatic capabilities for the production of high-efficiency flavors, the degradation of undesirable compounds,
and the provision of nicotine and nitrite tolerance which suggest fruitful areas of investigation into the manipulation of AFT
microbiota for AFT and other product improvements.
Keywords 16S rRNA gene sequencing · Microbial community diversity · Aging flue-cured tobaccos · PICRUSt ·
Functional profiling
Introduction
Microbiomes, which can transform our understanding of the
world and launch innovations in agriculture, energy, health,
the environment and elsewhere, are attracting increasing
attention. Microbiome research and applications have cur-
rently become one of the research hotpots in the field of life
sciences [1]. Tobacco is planted worldwide as a non-food,
economic crop. Unaged flue-cured tobacco is inadequate for
cigarette products because of its unfavorable sensory charac-
teristics such as sharp odors and undesirable aromas [2, 3].
The aging process is purposefully used to improve tobacco
qualities, including the aroma, the degradation of harmful
substances, and the optimization of other qualities desirable
in smoking products. This process is thought not simply a
purely chemical process, but is also reliant on the interaction
of the living material with microbes [4], which play crucial
roles in the aging process. They not only shorten the aging
cycle, and improve the taste and flavors of tobacco products
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0028 4-018-1525-x) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Haibo Zhang
zhanghb@qibebt.ac.cn
* Yi Wang
wyi@ynzy-tobacco.com
* Mo Xian
xianmo@qibebt.ac.cn
1
CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao
Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China
2
Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Sciences, Kunming 650106,
China
@Phil_Robichaud
@deepthiw
@JoseServera