Diversity of epiphytic fungi on the surface of Kyoho grape berries during ripening process in summer and winter at Nanning region, Guangxi, China

Abstract

The two-harvest-per-year farming system allow table grape to be harvested a year both in summer and winter in southern China. Herein, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate the diversity of fungi on grape fruits surface during the ripening process in summer and winter at subtropical Nanning region, Guangxi, China. The results showed that 23 fungal species existed in all samples. Among them, the five most dominant species were Cladosporium ramotenellum, Pseudozyma aphidis, Gyrothrix spp., Gibberella intricans and Acremonium alternatum, with abundance from 61.62 % to 91.26 %. Analysis using the student's t-test for Shannon index indicated that components of fungal community varied significantly between the two ripening seasons. The dominant genera of core fungal community were Cladosporium, Gyrothrix, Paramycosphaerella, Acremonium, Penicillium and Tilletiopsis in the summer and Cladosporium, Pseudozyma, Gibberella, Colletotrichum, Sporobolomyces, Rhodosporidium, Alternaria and Aspergillus in the winter. Overall, fungi diversity on grape fruits surface at Nanning showed significantly differences between different ripening seasons. Our results ennrich the understanding of epiphytic communities of grape fruits in subtropics.

Keywords: Epiphyte; High-throughput sequencing; Microbial community; Tropical viticulture.