Fungal deterioration of the bagasse storage from the harvested sugarcane

Na Peng,Baoshan Chen,Ziting Wang,Muhammad Tahir Khan,Muqing Zhang,Jiangfeng Huang,Ziting Yao

doi:10.1186/s13068-021-02004-x

Na Peng, Baoshan Chen + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-021-02004-x

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Abstract

BackgroundSugarcane is an essential crop for sugar and ethanol production. Immediate processing of sugarcane is necessary after harvested because of rapid sucrose losses and deterioration of stalks. This study was conducted to fill the knowledge gap regarding the exploration of fungal communities in harvested deteriorating sugarcane. Experiments were performed on simulating production at 30 °C and 40 °C after 0, 12, and 60 h of sugarcane harvesting and powder-processing.ResultsBoth pH and sucrose content declined significantly within 12 h. Fungal taxa were unraveled using ITS amplicon sequencing. With the increasing temperature, the diversity of the fungal community decreased over time. The fungal community structure significantly changed within 12 h of bagasse storage. Before stored, the dominant genus (species) in bagasse was Wickerhamomyces (W. anomalus). Following storage, Kazachstania (K. humilis) and Saccharomyces (S. cerevisiae) gradually grew, becoming abundant fungi at 30 °C and 40 °C. The bagasse at different temperatures had a similar pattern after storage for the same intervals, indicating that the temperature was the primary cause for the variation of core features. Moreover, most of the top fungal genera were significantly correlated with environmental factors (pH and sucrose of sugarcane, storage time, and temperature). In addition, the impact of dominant fungal species isolated from the deteriorating sugarcane on sucrose content and pH in the stored sugarcane juice was verified.ConclusionsThe study highlighted the importance of timeliness to refine sugar as soon as possible after harvesting the sugarcane. The lessons learned from this research are vital for sugarcane growers and the sugar industry for minimizing post-harvest losses.

Highlights

Sugarcane is an essential crop for sugar and ethanol production
In the first 14 h of cane juice deterioration, 93.0% of sucrose losses are caused by microbial, 5.7% by enzymic, and 1.3% by chemical changes [3]
The glucose and fructose are converted to organic acids and mannitol by the enzymes secreted by these microorganisms

Summary

Introduction

Sugarcane is an essential crop for sugar and ethanol production. Immediate processing of sugarcane is necessary after harvested because of rapid sucrose losses and deterioration of stalks. Sucrose inversions in the deterioration of harvested cane result from the chemical (acid), enzymic inversion, and microbial activity. In the first 14 h of cane juice deterioration, 93.0% of sucrose losses are caused by microbial, 5.7% by enzymic, and 1.3% by chemical changes (acid degradation) [3]. Penicillium, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, and yeast invade the stored sugarcane [2, 12, 13] These acid-producing microorganisms cause deterioration, decreasing sucrose content, juice purity, and pH, especially under anaerobic conditions such as mud-coated canes and the cane stored in large piles with poor ventilation [5, 13]. The endophytic microbial genera viz., Acetobacter, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, Vibrio, Bacillus, and lactic acid group are responsible for the deterioration of juice quality during staling [13, 14]

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