home    about    browse    search    latest    help 
Login | Create Account

Culturable fungi of stored "Golden Delicious" apple fruits: A one-season comparison study of organic and integrated production systems in Switzerland

Granado, José; Thürig, Barbara; Kieffer, Edith; Petrini, Liliane; Fließbach, Andreas; Tamm, Lucius; Weibel, Franco and Wyss, Gabriela S. (2008) Culturable fungi of stored "Golden Delicious" apple fruits: A one-season comparison study of organic and integrated production systems in Switzerland. Microbial Ecology, 56 (4), pp. 720-732.

[thumbnail of Granado_etal_2008_ME56.pdf] PDF - Published Version - English
Limited to [Depositor and staff only]

240kB

Document available online at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00248-008-9391-x


Summary

The effects of organic and integrated production systems on the culturable fungal microflora of stored apple fruits from five matched pairs of certified organic and integrated ‘Golden Delicious’ farms were studied at five representative production sites in Switzerland. Isolated fungi were identified morphologically. Colonization frequency (percentage of apples colonized), abundance (colony numbers), and diversity (taxon richness) were assessed for each orchard. The standard quality of the stored fruits was comparable for both organic and integrated apples and complied with national food hygiene standards. Yeasts (six taxa) and the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans were the dominant epiphytes, filamentous fungi (21 taxa) the dominant endophytes. The most common fungi occurred at all sites and belonged to the “white” and “pink” yeasts, yeast-like A. pullulans, filamentous fungi Cladosporium spp., Alternaria spp., and sterile filamentous fungi. Canonical correspondence analysis of the total fungal community revealed a clear differentiation among production systems and sites. Compared to integrated apples, organic apples had significantly higher frequencies of filamentous fungi, abundance of total fungi, and taxon diversity. The effects of the production system on the fungal microflora are most likely due to the different plant protection strategies. The incidence of potential mycotoxin producers such as Penicillium and Alternaria species was not different between production systems. We suggest that higher fungal diversity may generally be associated with organic production and may increase the level of beneficial and antagonistically acting species known for their potential to suppress apple pathogens, which may be an advantage to organic apples, e.g., in respect to natural disease control.


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:Culturable fungal microflora, Apples, Crop Protection, Pflanzenschutz
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
culturable fungal microflora
UNSPECIFIED
English
Apples
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_541
English
UNSPECIFIED
UNSPECIFIED
Subjects: Crop husbandry > Production systems > Fruit and berries
Crop husbandry > Crop health, quality, protection
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Crops > Crop protection
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Crops > Special crops > Fruit
DOI:10.1007/s00248-008-9391-x
Deposited By: Tamm, Dr. Lucius
ID Code:26423
Deposited On:17 Jun 2014 19:23
Last Modified:10 Aug 2021 14:23
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics