One apple carries about 100 million bacteria, study

"Freshly harvested, organically managed apples harbour a significantly more diverse, more even and distinct bacterial community, compared to conventional ones," said Berg. "This variety and balance would be expected to limit overgrowth of any one species, and previous studies have reported a negative correlation between human pathogen abundance and microbiome diversity of fresh produce," he said. Specific groups of bacteria known for health-affecting potential also weighed in favour of organic apples.

"Escherichia-Shigella - a group of bacteria that includes known pathogens - was found in most of the conventional apple samples, but none from organic apples. For beneficial Lactobacilli - of probiotic fame - the reverse was true," Berg said. "Methylobacterium, known to enhance the biosynthesis of strawberry flavour compounds, was significantly more abundant in organic apples; here especially on peel and flesh samples, which in general had a more diverse microbiota than seeds, stem or calyx," he said.

The results mirror findings on fungal communities in apples, researchers said. "Our results agree remarkably with a recent study on the apple fruit-associated fungal community, which revealed specificity of fungal varieties to different tissues and management practices," said Birgit Wasserman, lead author of the study.

The studies show that across both bacteria and fungi, the apple microbiome is more diverse in organically grown fruits, researchers said.

Source: indianexpress.com

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