Mapping the microbial diversity associated with mango fruit during postharvest handling, cold plasma treatment, storage and after drying

Postharvest treatments have a central impact on the microbial community of mango fruit. This study investigated the dynamics of the bacterial community on ‘Heidi’ mango fruit surfaces from harvest (on tree in the farm) to cold storage, pre-treatments and processing (drying at 60 °C) using 16S rRNA-b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Loriane A. Yanclo, Alvera Vorster, Carel Van Heerden, Gunnar Sigge, Zinash A. Belay, Oluwafemi James Caleb
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-12-01
Series:Applied Food Research
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772502225004093
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Summary:Postharvest treatments have a central impact on the microbial community of mango fruit. This study investigated the dynamics of the bacterial community on ‘Heidi’ mango fruit surfaces from harvest (on tree in the farm) to cold storage, pre-treatments and processing (drying at 60 °C) using 16S rRNA-based metagenomic sequencing. A total of 544,965 reads belonging to 20 bacteria phyla were associated with freshly harvested mango surface. At harvest, Proteobacteria were the dominant phylum (61%), followed by Actinobacteria (20%), Cyanobacteria (9%), and Firmicutes (3%). Transportation resulted a 92% abundance of Proteobacteria. Pre-treatment of whole fruit with low pressure cold plasma (CP) for 5 min (CP5) and 10 min (CP10), and fungicide (Chronos Prochloraz) significantly altered the bacterial community. This study showed that the abundance of Proteobacteria on whole fruit was highest for CP10 (77%) followed by Chronos Prochloraz (45%) after 4 weeks of cool storage. Cyanobacteria were eliminated in dried fresh-cut mango slices with the combination of plasma jet pre-treatment and drying. This work provides evidence to support the potential application of next generation sequencing in distinguishing various bacterial communities along the entire postharvest value chain.
ISSN:2772-5022