Endophytic Fungal Community of Tobacco Leaves and Their Potential Role in the Formation of "Cherry-Red" Tobacco.

ABSTRACT: "Cherry-red" tobacco is the superior variant of tobacco, appearing with the apperance of red dapples on cured leaves due to the demethylation of nicotine to nornicotine during maturation and curing. Fungi are known to have the capacity to convert nicotine to nornicotine. However, an endophytic fungal community of "cherry-red" tobacco has never been reported to our best knowledge. Here, we sampled mature leaves from both "cherry-red" and ordinary tobacco at lower, center, and upper plant sections, and we analyzed the ITS diversity using high-throughput sequencing. Results revealed a significantly different fungal community of foliar endophyte in "cherry-red" and ordinary tobacco. In comparison to the ordinary control, higher diversity and a co-occurrence network complex were found in "cherr

SUBMITTER: Jiang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8323715 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature