Compositional shifts in the fungal diversity of garlic scapes during postharvest transportation and cold storage

The aim of this study was to elucidate the dynamics, diversity and succession of fungal communities on garlic scapes during postharvest short-term transportation and long-term cold storage using the high-throughput sequencing of ITS1 regions. During short-term transportation, samples transported at 0 °C harbored 75 operational taxonomic units, which was more than in either of the higher temperature groups. The beta-diversity analysis revealed significant fungal compositional differences between the sample transported at 0 °C and those transported at the higher temperatures. These differences indicated that higher temperatures can result in significant changes in the fungal community composition by causing short-term competition among fungi. So, lower transportation temperature is beneficial to inhibit the growth-related metabolism of fungi and maintenance microflora on garlic scapes. During long-term cold storage, Botrytis gradually became the main fungus on garlic scapes. Thus, long-term cold-stored garlic scapes have a greater risk of undergoing postharvest deterioration caused by Botrytis. Additionally, purified Botrytis was inoculated into garlic scapes. The deterioration in the storage quality of garlic scapes was accelerated by the growth of Botrytis. Therefore, control measures should focus on gray mold diseases caused by Botrytis during long-term cold-stored garlic scapes after low temperature transportation. •High-throughput sequencing was applied to garlic scapes.•Higher temperature affected fungal communities of garlic scapes significantly during short-term transportation.•The fungal communities of garlic scapes changed during long-term storage.•Botrytis was one of the main pathogen of garlic scapes during long-term cold storage.