Mentholation affects the cigarette microbiota by selecting for bacteria resistant to harsh environmental conditions and selecting against potential bacterial pathogens.
Microbiome
; 5(1): 22, 2017 02 15.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28202080
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
There is a paucity of data regarding the microbial constituents of tobacco products and their impacts on public health. Moreover, there has been no comparative characterization performed on the bacterial microbiota associated with the addition of menthol, an additive that has been used by tobacco manufacturers for nearly a century. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted bacterial community profiling on tobacco from user- and custom-mentholated/non-mentholated cigarette pairs, as well as a commercially-mentholated product. Total genomic DNA was extracted using a multi-step enzymatic and mechanical lysis protocol followed by PCR amplification of the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene from five cigarette products (18 cigarettes per product for a total of 90 samples) Camel Crush, user-mentholated Camel Crush, Camel Kings, custom-mentholated Camel Kings, and Newport Menthols. Sequencing was performed on the Illumina MiSeq platform and sequences were processed using the Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) software package.RESULTS:
In all products, Pseudomonas was the most abundant genera and included Pseudomonas oryzihabitans and Pseudomonas putida, regardless of mentholation status. However, further comparative analysis of the five products revealed significant differences in the bacterial compositions across products. Bacterial community richness was higher among non-mentholated products compared to those that were mentholated, particularly those that were custom-mentholated. In addition, mentholation appeared to be correlated with a reduction in potential human bacterial pathogens and an increase in bacterial species resistant to harsh environmental conditions.CONCLUSIONS:
Taken together, these data provide preliminary evidence that the mentholation of commercially available cigarettes can impact the bacterial community of these products.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Nicotiana
/
Bacteria
/
Smoking
/
Tobacco Products
/
Microbiota
/
Menthol
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Microbiome
Year:
2017
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States