Piombo Edoardo, Abdelfattah Ahmed, Danino Yaara, Salim Shoshana, Feygenberg Oleg, Spadaro Davide, Wisniewski Michael, Droby Samir
Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy.
AGROINNOVA-Centre of Competence for the Innovation in the Agro-environmental Sector, University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy.
Microorganisms. 2020 Apr 28;8(5):641. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8050641.
Date palm () is considered to be a highly important food crop in several African and Middle Eastern countries due to its nutritional value and health-promoting properties. Microbial contamination of dates has been of concern to consumers, but very few works have analyzed in detail the microbial load of the different parts of date fruit. In the present work, we characterized the fungal communities of date fruit using a metagenomic approach, analyzing the data for differences between microbial populations residing in the pulp and peel of "Medjool" dates at the different stages of fruit development. The results revealed that , , , and were the most abundant genera in both parts of the fruit, however, the distribution of taxa among the time points and tissue types (peel vs. pulp) was very diverse. was more abundant in the pulp at the green developmental stage (Kimri), while was more frequent in the peel at the brown developmental stage (Tamer). The highest abundance of was detected at the earliest sampled stage of fruit development (Hababauk stage). had a high level of abundance in peel tissues at the Hababauk and yellow (Khalal) stages. Regarding the yeast community, the abundance of remained stable up until the Khalal stage, but exhibited a dramatic increase in abundance at the Tamer stage in peel tissues, while the level of , a genus containing several species with postharvest biocontrol activity, exhibited no significant differences between the two tissue types or stages of fruit development. This work constitutes a comprehensive metagenomic analysis of the fungal microbiome of date fruits, and has identified changes in the composition of the fungal microbiome in peel and pulp tissues at the different stages of fruit development. Notably, this study has also characterized the endophytic fungal microbiome present in pulp tissues of dates.
海枣（）由于其营养价值和促进健康的特性，在几个非洲和中东国家被认为是一种非常重要的粮食作物。海枣的微生物污染一直是消费者关注的问题，但很少有研究详细分析海枣果实不同部位的微生物负荷。在本研究中，我们采用宏基因组学方法对海枣果实的真菌群落进行了表征，分析了“Medjool”海枣在果实发育不同阶段果肉和果皮中微生物种群之间的差异数据。结果表明， 、 、 和 是果实两个部位中最丰富的属，然而，不同时间点和组织类型（果皮与果肉）之间的分类单元分布非常多样。 在绿色发育阶段（Kimri）的果肉中更为丰富，而 在褐色发育阶段（Tamer）的果皮中更为常见。在果实发育最早采样阶段（Hababauk阶段）检测到 的丰度最高。 在Hababauk和黄色（Khalal）阶段的果皮组织中丰度较高。关于酵母群落， 的丰度在Khalal阶段之前一直保持稳定，但在Tamer阶段果皮组织中的丰度显著增加，而 属（包含几个具有采后生物防治活性的物种）在两种组织类型或果实发育阶段之间没有显著差异。这项工作构成了对海枣果实真菌微生物组的全面宏基因组分析，并确定了果实发育不同阶段果皮和果肉组织中真菌微生物组组成的变化。值得注意的是，本研究还对海枣果肉组织中存在的内生真菌微生物组进行了表征。
