Abstract:Cigar tobacco leaves can be made into cigar products with unique flavors only after fermentation treatment. It is of great significance to investigate the diversity of microorganisms in tobacco fermentation process to improve the quality of domestic cigar tobacco. In this study, preliminarily air-cured cigar tobacco leaves from eight regions of Yunnan Province and seven high-quality cigar tobacco leaves from Dominican Republic were collected. The microbial species on the surface of each sample were identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing technology. Microbial diversity was analyzed by OTU clustering analysis, Alpha diversity analysis, species composition analysis, and other methods to obtain the dominant bacteria on the surface of preliminarily air-cured tobacco leaves. The results showed that the dominant bacterial genus in the cigar tobacco leaves of Yunnan Province was prevalently identified as Staphylococcus, while other common genera included Pseudomonas, Achromobacter, Corynebacterium, Pantoea, and so on. The distribution of microbial species in Dominican cigar samples was more uniform than that in domestic cigar samples, and the overall diversity of microbial species was higher than that of domestic cigar samples. The majority of their dominant bacteria genera were Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Tetralogy. The dominant bacteria genera of cigar leaves in Lincang City of Yunnan Province were similar to those in Dominican cigar samples, and its species diversity and uniformity were higher than those in other domestic regions in China, indicating great development potential.
