ArticlePloS one2019
Little cigars and cigarillos harbor diverse bacterial communities that differ between the tobacco and the wrapper.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating the Impact of Little Cigar Use on the Oral Bacterial Microbiota of Cigarette Smokers.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Viable, Multi-Drug-Resistant Bacteria Recovered from E-Liquids Used with Commercial Electronic Cigarettes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- A comparative analysis of the microbiome of cigars produced in the Caribbean and China.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Bacterial community structure associated with smokeless tobacco reference products under different storage conditions and durations.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Breaking the habit: isolating nicotine-degrading bacteria in undergraduate microbiology teaching labs.Journal of microbiology & biology education · 2024Article
- Exploring the Microbial Diversity and Composition of Three Cigar Product Categories.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
- Past-Year Blunt Smoking among Youth: Differences by LGBT and Non-LGBT Identity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Conventional tobacco products harbor unique and heterogenous microbiomes.Environmental research · 2023Article
- Bacterial communities of hookah tobacco products are diverse and differ across brands and flavors.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2022Article
- Associations between microbial communities and key chemical constituents in U.S. domestic moist snuff.PloS one · 2022Article
- Geographic and position-based variations in phyllospheric bacterial communities present on flue-cured tobacco.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2021Article
- Microbiology of the American Smokeless Tobacco.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2021Review
- A roadmap from unknowns to knowns: Advancing our understanding of the microbiomes of commercially available tobacco products.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2021Review
- Mentholation triggers brand-specific shifts in the bacterial microbiota of commercial cigarette products.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2020Article
- The Bacterial Communities of Little Cigars and Cigarillos Are Dynamic Over Time and Varying Storage Conditions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Despite their potential importance with regard to infectious and chronic diseases among tobacco users, microbial constituents of tobacco products lack characterization. Specifically, to our knowledge, there are no data describing the bacterial diversity of little cigars or cigarillos. To address this knowledge gap, we tested four brands of little cigars and cigarillos. Tobacco and wrapper subsamples (n = 132) were separately subjected to DNA extraction, followed by PCR amplification of the V3V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, and sequencing using Illumina HiSeq. Sequences were analyzed using QIIME and Phyloseq implemented in R. We identified 2,681 operational taxonomic units across all products. Significant differences in alpha and beta diversity were observed between Swisher Sweets and Cheyenne products. Alpha and beta diversity was also significantly different between tobacco and wrapper subsamples within the same product. Beta diversity analyses of only tobacco samples identified no significant differences in the bacterial microbiota of different lots of the same products; however, the microbiota in the wrapper differed significantly across lots for all brands. Overall, Firmicutes were found to dominate in the wrapper, whereas Proteobacteria were most abundant in the tobacco. At the genus level, Bacillus and Lactobacillus dominated in the wrappers, and Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas dominated in the tobacco. Our findings suggest that the bacterial microbiota of little cigars and cigarillos is diverse and differs significantly between the tobacco and the wrapper, and across brands. Future work is necessary to evaluate the potential public health implications of these findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.