Differentiated surface fungal communities at point of harvest on apple fruits from rural and peri-urban orchards

Abstract

The diverse fungal communities that colonize fruit surfaces are closely associated with fruit development, preservation and quality control. However, the overall fungi adhering to the fruit surface and the inference of environmental factors are still unknown. Here, we characterized the fungal signatures on apple surfaces by sequencing internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region. We collected the surface fungal communities from apple fruits cultivated in rural and peri-urban orchards. A total of 111 fungal genera belonging to 4 phyla were identified, showing remarkable fungal diversity on the apple surface. Comparative analysis of rural samples harboured higher fungal diversity than those from peri-urban orchards. In addition, fungal composition varied significantly across apple samples. At the genus level, the protective genera Coniothyrium, Paraphaeosphaeria and Periconia were enriched in rural samples. The pathogenic genera Acremonium, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Tilletiposis were enriched in peri-urban samples. Our findings indicate that rural samples maintained more diverse fungal communities on apple surfaces, whereas peri-urban-planted apple carried potential pathogenic risks. This study sheds light on ways to improve fruit cultivation and disease prevention practices.

Changes in the Soil Microbiome in Eggplant Monoculture Revealed by High-Throughput Illumina MiSeq Sequencing as Influenced by Raw Garlic Stalk Amendment

“…In our study, seven fungal taxa, i.e., Chaetomium , Coprinellus , Acremonium , Fusarium , Aspergillus , Sordariomycetes, and Plectosphaerellaceae, were abundantly found in the soil, which was consistent with earlier reports [12,45]. However, analyses confirmed that soil chemical properties and RGS treatments were decisive factors altering the fungal community in the soil.…”

Tissue age, orchard location and disease management influence the composition of fungal and bacterial communities present on the bark of apple trees

“…Clusters of orchard-specific genera were found in the heatmap of fungal relative abundance (Supporting Information Fig. S8A) and taxa known to be affected by geographical location, such as Eurotiomycetes, Pleosporales and Davidiella; (Bokulich et al, 2014;Shen et al, 2018), differed in relative abundance between orchard 1 and Fig. 2.…”

“…Microbial ecology is increasingly focussing attention on factors that can influence the composition of plant-associated microbial communities (Busby et al, 2017) and their possible negative or positive effects on plant hosts (Mendes et al, 2013). In particular, environmental conditions (Bokulich et al, 2014;Shen et al, 2018), tissue age (Vorholt, 2012;Arrigoni et al, 2018) and plant genotype (Correa et al, 2007;Whipps et al, 2008;Arrigoni et al, 2018) are key determinants of the microbiota taxonomic structure. For example, geographical location influences the structure and the composition of fungal and bacterial communities associated with grapevine (Bokulich et al, 2014;Perazzolli et al, 2014;Mezzasalma et al, 2017;Vitulo et al, 2019) and lettuce (Rastogi et al, 2012).…”

Standardization of Plant Microbiome Studies: Which Proportion of the Microbiota is Really Harvested?

“…Rinsing by shaking at 120 rpm for 20 min Plating [28] Water and phosphate buffer, pH 6.5 Rinsing first time in water; and once with sonication bath with phosphate buffer Plating [29] No buffer Wiping the fruit surface with moistened cotton swab Amplicon sequencing [30,31] Phosphate buffer, pH 6.8…”