The role of microbial communities in maintaining post-harvest sugar beet storability

Sugar beet is an important crop for sugar production in Europe; however, the loss of sucrose during long storage periods poses a major challenge. Environmental factors coupled with the genetic makeup of the sugar beet influence its storability, with some genotypes showing greater resilience and maintaining high sugar content during storage. The pathogenic part of the plant-associated microbiome is considered one of the main causative agents. However, the same microbiome can also harbor beneficial microbes with potential biocontrol activities that positively affect storability. Despite extensive studies on pre-harvest microbiota, post-harvest microbial community dynamics and their impact on sugar beet quality remain largely unexplored. To uncover the underlying dynamics of microbial patterns associated with different storage capacities, we used 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing to analyze the bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. Four sugar beet varieties that exhibited disparate storability responses following a 12-week storage trial were investigated. This study identified temporal microbial differences and microbial markers associated with sugar beet storability. Specifically, the fungal class Saccharomycetes, along with the agonistic bacterial genus Gluconobacter, was correlated with reduced storage capacity. In contrast, good storage capacity was characterized by greater microbial diversity, including the fungal indicator taxon Plectosphaerella and the correlating Actinobacteria species. These biomarkers have the potential to be used to identify sugar beet varieties with good storability and to improve the storability of agricultural products.