Diversity Analysis and Function Prediction of Bacterial Communities in the Different Colored Pericarp of cv. 'Shatangju' Due to ' Liberibacter asiaticus' Infection.

Huanglongbing (HLB), caused by the Liberibacter spp., is the most devastating disease in the citrus industry. HLB significantly affects and alters the microbial community structure or potential function of the microbial community of leaves and roots. However, it is unknown how the microbial community structure of the pericarp with different pigments is affected by Liberibacter asiaticus (Las). This study identified the enriched taxa of the microbial community in the citrus pericarp with normal or abnormal pigment and determine the effects of HLB on the pericarp microbial community using 16S rRNA-seq. The alpha and beta diversity and composition of microbial communities were significantly different between normal and abnormal pigment pericarp tissues of ripe fruits infected by Las. , , , , and dominated the pericarp microbiota composition in WDYFs (whole dark yellow fruits) samples. The relative abundance of most genera in WDYFs was higher than 1%, such as , and . However, with the exception of the HLB pathogen, the relative abundance of most genera in the abnormal-colored pericarp samples was less than 1%. Las decreased the relative abundance of pericarp taxonomic. The predicted function of microbial was more plentiful and functional properties in the WDYF sample, such as translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis, amino acid transport and metabolism, energy production and conversion, and some other clusters of orthologous groups (COG) except for cell motility. The results of this study offer novel insights into understanding the composition of microbial communities of the Las-affected citrus pericarps and contribute to the development of biological control strategies for citrus against Huanglongbing.