TY - JOUR
T1 - Epiphytic Microbial Community and Post-Harvest Characteristics of Strawberry Fruits as Affected by Plant Nutritional Regime with Silicon
AU - Valentinuzzi, Fabio
AU - Pii, Youry
AU - Borruso, Luigimaria
AU - Mimmo, Tanja
AU - Puglisi, Edoardo
AU - Trevisan, Marco
AU - Cesco, Stefano
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Despite being not essential to plants, Silicon (Si) has proven to have promoting effects on plants growth, yield, and resistance against biotic and abiotic stressors. The increase of concentration in specific minerals in plant tissues can also improve shelf-life, which, in fruits like strawberries, is also affected by the epiphytic microbial community. The present research was carried out to assess whether Si biofortification of strawberry plants, grown in soilless system, could affect plants yield and post-harvest feature of fruits during the storage period, carried out at three different temperatures (i.e., 1, 4 and 10 °C) for 7 and 14 days. Furthermore, we investigated whether the plant nutritional regime, specifically the Si fertilization, can impact the composition of microbial community. Our results showed that biofortification did not significantly affect fruits firmness, whereas, at the highest Si levels, an increase in titratable acidity was observed. The microbial community analysis highlighted for the first time the presence of probiotic bacteria, as Bacillus breve, which could present interesting technological features as strains adapted to the strawberry fruit-sphere. In addition, with the increasing levels of Si biofortification, the depletion of potentially pathogenic microorganisms, like Escherichia coli and Terrisporobacter glycolicus, was also observed. In conclusion, data here reported highlight for the first time the possible role played by the nutritional regimes of strawberry plants in shaping composition of the fruit epiphytic microbial community.
AB - Despite being not essential to plants, Silicon (Si) has proven to have promoting effects on plants growth, yield, and resistance against biotic and abiotic stressors. The increase of concentration in specific minerals in plant tissues can also improve shelf-life, which, in fruits like strawberries, is also affected by the epiphytic microbial community. The present research was carried out to assess whether Si biofortification of strawberry plants, grown in soilless system, could affect plants yield and post-harvest feature of fruits during the storage period, carried out at three different temperatures (i.e., 1, 4 and 10 °C) for 7 and 14 days. Furthermore, we investigated whether the plant nutritional regime, specifically the Si fertilization, can impact the composition of microbial community. Our results showed that biofortification did not significantly affect fruits firmness, whereas, at the highest Si levels, an increase in titratable acidity was observed. The microbial community analysis highlighted for the first time the presence of probiotic bacteria, as Bacillus breve, which could present interesting technological features as strains adapted to the strawberry fruit-sphere. In addition, with the increasing levels of Si biofortification, the depletion of potentially pathogenic microorganisms, like Escherichia coli and Terrisporobacter glycolicus, was also observed. In conclusion, data here reported highlight for the first time the possible role played by the nutritional regimes of strawberry plants in shaping composition of the fruit epiphytic microbial community.
KW - 16S rRNA sequencing
KW - Epiphytic microbial community
KW - Fragaria x ananassa
KW - Fruit quality
KW - Shelf life
KW - Si fertilization
KW - 16S rRNA sequencing
KW - Epiphytic microbial community
KW - Fragaria x ananassa
KW - Fruit quality
KW - Shelf life
KW - Si fertilization
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/194009
U2 - 10.3390/agronomy11122407
DO - 10.3390/agronomy11122407
M3 - Article
SN - 2073-4395
VL - 11
SP - 2407
EP - 2407
JO - Agronomy
JF - Agronomy
ER -