Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities by Illumina MiSeq platforms and characterization of Aspergillus cristatus in Fuzhuan brick tea

Abstract

Fuzhuan brick tea (FBT) is an indigenous dark tea fermented by fungal and bacterial communities, and the special favor of FBT attributes to the actions of microbiota, while the correlation between bacteria and fungi attracts little attention. In the present study, therefore, the compositions of microbial communities in 10 samples of FBT from four tea processing factories were evaluated by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Bacterial taxonomy analysis revealed that the phylum Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the predominant bacteria in all samples. Fungal taxonomy analysis revealed that the phylum Ascomycota, family Trichocomaceae, genus Aspergillus was the dominant fungus in all samples. Moreover, Aspergillus (OTU1, OTU2, OTU16, OTU30, OTU31 and OTU37), Wallemia (OTU3), Penicillium (OTU32), Candida (OTU33, OTU35, OTU40 and OTU43), Debaryomyces (OTU48) and Rhodotorula (OTU68) showed higher correlation with bacteria in FBT. Furthermore, a strain Aspergillus cristatus was isolated from FBT, and its morphology and molecular taxonomy were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and sequencing. Hence, this is the first report to reveal the correlation between bacterial and fungal communities in FBT, and A. cristatus may have potential application to improve the quality of FBT.