Abstract
Soil microorganisms could affect the quality of tobacco leaves, however, little is known about the association of tobacco chemical components and soil fungal communities. In the present study, the relationship between soil fungi and tobacco quality based on chemical components in Bijie was investigated. The results showed that the total harmony scores (THS) of the analyzed tobacco leaves ranged from 46.55 ± 3.5 to 91.55 ± 2.25. Analyses of chemical components revealed that high contents of nicotine (≥ 1.06%) and sugar (total sugar: ≥ 22.96%, reducing sugar: ≥ 19.62%), as well as low potassium level (≤ 2.68%) were the main factors limiting the quality of flue-cured tobacco leaves. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that soil nitrate, available potassium/phosphorous, and organic matter significantly correlated with tobacco nicotine, potassium, and chloride levels (p < 0.05). Besides, the analysis of alpha- and beta-diversity of soil fungal communities implied that fungal structure rather than the richness affected the chemical quality of tobacco. In detail, the relative abundance of Humicola olivacea species in soils was positively correlated with the THS of tobaccos (r = 0.52, p < 0.05). Moreover, the species including Mortierella alpina, Mortierella hyalina, Tausonia pullulan, and Humicola olivacea were negatively correlated with tobacco sugar (r ≤ − 0.45, p < 0.05) while, Codinaea acaciae and Saitozyma podzolica species were negatively correlated with tobacco nicotine (r ≤ − 0.51, p < 0.05). The present study provides a preliminary basis for utilizing fungal species in soils to improve the chemical quality of tobacco in the studied area.
Highlights
Abbreviations RSN Ratio of reducing sugar to nicotine RNN Ratio of nitrogen to nicotine RKCl Ratio of potassium to chloride total harmony scores (THS) Total harmony scores OM Organic matter AvK Available potassium available phosphorous (AvP) Available phosphorous redundancy analysis (RDA) Redundancy analysis operational taxonomic units (OTUs) Operational taxonomic units
The analyzed indexes of chemical quality of tobacco leaves include the concentrations of nicotine, total nitrogen, reducing sugar, total sugar, potassium, chlorine, and starch, as well as the ratio of reducing sugar to nicotine (RSN), nitrogen to nicotine (RNN), and potassium to chloride (RKCl)
The potassium level in the tobacco leaves ranged from 1.07 ± 0.005% to 2.68 ± 0.016% (Table 1), while only three samples (S8, S12, and S14) met the standard of high-quality tobacco with the contents over 2%
Summary
Abbreviations RSN Ratio of reducing sugar to nicotine RNN Ratio of nitrogen to nicotine RKCl Ratio of potassium to chloride THS Total harmony scores OM Organic matter AvK Available potassium AvP Available phosphorous RDA Redundancy analysis OTUs Operational taxonomic units. Previous studies have focused on the improved tobacco quality by using biochar products and fertilizers[1,4,10,11], to the authors’ knowledge, few studies reported the relationship between soil microbial communities and tobacco quality through the on-field investigations and experiments. Previous researches have focused on the abundance and diversity of soil fungi in continuous cropping of flue-cured tobacco in natural e nvironment[19], research underlying the relationship between soil fungal communities and tobacco quality, especially in the natural environment, have not yet been fully elucidated. This study focused on the impact of soil fungal communities on tobacco quality in a main district of southwest China by planting flue-cured tobacco
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