Impact of solar radiation exposure on phyllosphere bacterial community of red-pigmented baby leaf lettuce.

Impact of solar radiation exposure on phyllosphere bacterial community of red-pigmented baby leaf lettuce. Food Microbiol. 2017 Sep;66:77-85 Authors: Truchado P, Gil MI, Reboleiro P, Rodelas B, Allende A Abstract Solar radiation has been identified as a stress factor affecting phyllosphere associated bacteria colonization and survival during primary production. In the present study, the impact of different solar radiation doses on the phyllosphere microbiota of red-pigmented baby leaf lettuce cultivated in open field under commercial conditions was evaluated. Four weeks before harvest, the growing field was divided into four plots; each one was consecutively covered with one-week-interval with a light-excluding plastic to reduce the sunlight exposure. Four different solar radiation treatments were generated and cumulative photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was used to differentiate treatments as follows: 4889 ± 428 μmol/m(2)/s (uncovered), 4265 ± 356 μmol/m(2)/s (covered for 1 week), 3602 ± 225 μmol/m(2)/s (covered for 2 weeks) and 3115 ± 313 μmol/m(2)/s (covered for 3 weeks). The size and composition of the phyllosphere bacterial community were determined by cultivation-depended (plate count) and independent (qPCR) techniques. Exposure to decreased levels of cumulative PAR did not produce significant differences in total bacterial community size, regardless of the chosen quantification techniques. However,...
Source: Food Microbiology - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Food Microbiol Source Type: research