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An assessment of the air quality in apple warehouses: new records of Aspergillus europaeus, Aspergillus pulverulentus, Penicillium allii and Penicillium sumatraense as decay agents

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Abstract

Airborne fungi are one of the major components of aeromycobiota known to produce several fungal diseases in fruits. Their presence in indoor environment of warehouses may limit the storage period of apples. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of airborne fungal spores were conducted using gravity settling techniques to detect fungal airspora present in the atmosphere of two apple warehouses in Tunisia. In this study, 375 fungal isolates were obtained and purified. Phylogenetic analysis of calmodulin, beta-tubulin and ITS regions coupled with phenotypic characterization helped to identify 15 fungal species. Penicillium exhibited the highest diversity with ten species detected (Penicillium allii, P. chrysogenum, P. citrinum, P. expansum, P. italicum, P. polonicum, P. solitum, P. steckii, P. sumatraense and P. viridicatum), followed by four species of Aspergillus genus (Aspergillus europaeus, A. flavus, A. niger and A. pulverulentus) and Alternaria alternata. In vivo experiments confirmed the pathogenicity of 13 species at room temperature and under cold-storage conditions. Among them, A. europaeus, A. pulverulentus, P. allii and P. sumatraense were described for the first time as pathogens on apples. The present study identified the major airborne fungi associated with postharvest rot in apple storage facilities in Tunisia and may help in efficient control of postharvest and storage fruit diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funds from the VRR Project (no. 0310) and by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia (LR16ES05).

Funding

This study was funded by Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia (LR16ES05) and by funds from the Project of Valorization of Results (VRR no. 0310).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Mycologie, Pathologies et Biomarqueurs (LR16ES05), Département de Biologie, Université de Tunis-El Manar, 2092, Tunis, Tunisia

    Marwa Smiri, Amina Kheireddine, Rania Hammami & Najla Sadfi-Zouaoui

  2. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie, 1004, Tunis, Tunisia

    Mustapha Rouissi

  3. Departamento de Microbiología Molecular, Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Eduardo Antonio Espeso

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  1. Marwa Smiri
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Contributions

Marwa SMIRI carried out the experiment and wrote the manuscript with support from Najla SADFI, Eduardo Antonio Espeso and Mustapha Rouissi and Mohamed Zouaoui. Najla SADFI supervised the Project. Amina Kheireddine helped in sampling. Eduardo Antonio Espeso contributed to molecular analysis. All the authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Najla Sadfi-Zouaoui.

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Smiri, M., Kheireddine, A., Hammami, R. et al. An assessment of the air quality in apple warehouses: new records of Aspergillus europaeus, Aspergillus pulverulentus, Penicillium allii and Penicillium sumatraense as decay agents. Arch Microbiol 203, 5975–5992 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02551-9

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