Microbial community analysis of mildewed cigar tobacco leaves from high-throughput sequencing data

Abstract Background Cigar tobacco leaves contain abundant bacteria and fungi that are vital for their quality. In this study, the microbial communities were analyzed in the artificial mildewed cigar tobacco leaves of different mildew stages (healthy control, early stage, middle stage and late stage). Results For cigar wrapper tobacco leaves, there was an increased bacterial genera abundance of Terribacillus , Bacillus and Micrococcus , while there was an increased fungal genera abundance of Aspergillus , Penicillium and Mucor . For cigar filler tobacco leaves, there was an increased bacterial genera abundance of Staphylococcus , while there was an increased fungal genera abundance of Aspergillus and Trichomonascus . Microbial communities (bacterial and fungal) showed significantly different compositions in both cigar wrapper and filler tobacco leaves from different mildew stages. The top important microbial communities (bacterial and fungal) in cigar wrapper and filler tobacco were Sphingomonas , Aerococcus , Wallemia and Trichomonascus , respectively. Conclusion This study provided evidence for the great changes in microbial communities during the mildew process of cigar wrapper and filler tobacco. The effects of the dominant bacterial genera and fungal genera on tobacco mildew should be explored in depth, whose findings may be applied to develop strategies for controlling tobacco mildew.