Impact of microbial-based biopreparations on soil quality, plant health, and fruit chemistry in raspberry cultivation

Application of microbial-based biopreparations as a pre-harvest strategy offers a method to obtain sustainable agricultural practices and could be an important approach for advancing food science, promoting sustainability, and meeting global food market demands. The impact of a bacterial-fungal biopreparation mixture on soil-plant-microbe interactions, fruit chemical composition and yield of 7 raspberry clones was investigated by examining the structural and functional profiles of microbial communities within leaves, fruits, and soil. Biopreparation addition caused the enhancement of the microbiological utilization of specific compounds, such as d-mannitol, relevant in plant-pathogen interactions and overall plant health. The biopreparation treatment positively affected the nitrogen availability in soil (9-160%). The analysis of plant stress marker enzymes combined with the evaluation of fruit quality and chemical properties highlight changes inducted by the pre-harvest biopreparation application. Chemical analyses highlight biopreparations' role in soil and fruit quality improvement, promoting sustainable agriculture. This effect was dependent on tested clones, showing increase of soluble solid content in fruits, concentration of polyphenols or the sensory quality of the fruits. The results of the next-generation sequencing indicated increase in the effective number of bacterial species after biopreparation treatment. The network analysis showed stimulating effect of biopreparation on microbial communities by enhancing microbial interactions (increasing the number of network edges up to 260%) of and affecting the proportions of mutual relationships between both bacteria and fungi. These findings show the potential of microbial-based biopreparation in enhancing raspberry production whilst promoting sustainable practices and maintaining environmental homeostasis and giving inshght in holistic understanding of microbial-based approaches for advancing food science monitoring.