Isolation and identification of “golden flower” fungus and determination of its effects on chemical the composition of Fu tea

Abstract

This study aimed to accurately identify the “golden flower” fungus, and characterize its effects on the chemical composition of Fu tea. A “golden flower” fungus strain was isolated from Hunan Fu tea and named as ACF-1. The ACF-1 was identified as Aspergillus cristatus using culture characteristics, optical microscopic structure, electron microscopic structure, ITS region sequence alignment analysis, and multigene phylogeny analysis based on β-tubulin, calmodulin, and RNA polymerase Ⅱ gene sequences. ACF-1 fungus was inoculated into sterilized primary dark tea for a loose tea “flowering” experiment, to analyze changes in the main chemical components. Polyphenol, free amino acid, soluble sugar, and flavonoid contents changed substantially in the “flowering” samples compared to non-“flowering”, decreasing by 11.3%, 17.3%, 11.9%, and 33.8%, respectively. The variation of chemical components made a foundation for the quality improvement during the process. These findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the formation of the sensory characteristics in Fu tea and provide a guidance for the development and utilization of “golden flower” fungus.

Keywords

• aspergillus cristatus
• identification
• polygenic alignment modified
• artificial inoculation
• chemical composition