Deciphering the microbial community succession for postharvest processing diseases of sugar beets

Sugar losses due to sugar beet storage rot have a significant economic impact on the sugar industry. Microbial community succession during storage, resulting in the gradual spread of spoilage microorganisms, becomes a continuous challenge for post-harvest processing of sugar beets. Currently, little is known about microbial community succession during sugar beet storage and its drivers, which have not been fully investigated. Based on Illumina sequencing of 16S and ITS genes, the community composition of microorganisms during storage was investigated. Leuconostoc , Pantoea , Candida and Guehomyces spp. were the main spoilage microorganisms. Analysis of environmental factors driving microbial communities by VPA (Variance Partitioning Analysis) showed that temperature was the main abiotic factor driving microbial community succession. Co-occurrence network results indicated that interactions between core microorganisms were the main biotic factors driving microbial community succession. In addition, Mantel-test analysis showed that core microorganisms significantly affected sugar beet quality indexes, and RDA (Redundancy Analysis) indicated that the effects of core microorganisms on sucrose content mainly occurred at the early stage of storage. The insights gained from this study provide a new basis for controlling sugar beet quality during storage by tracking core microorganisms (3 bacteria and 19 fungi) of sugar beet deterioration during storage. • During storage, the sucrose content of sugar beets decreases by 19%. • Temperature is the main factor driving microbial community succession. • Core microbial interactions are the main biological factors driving succession. • Core bacteria are the main microorganisms affecting sucrose content at 0 day.