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Fig. 4 | Environmental Microbiome

Fig. 4

From: Seasonality, shelf life and storage atmosphere are main drivers of the microbiome and E. coli O157:H7 colonization of post-harvest lettuce cultivated in a major production area in California

Fig. 4

Correlations between bacterial community composition on lettuce sampled at mid- and endpoint of storage under MAP conditions and various factors. Factors included in the analysis were decay rating, %CO2 and %O2 in the bag, and difference between inoculated EcO157 population size prior to storage and at either mid- or endpoint (ecpop). Only inoculated samples are included. NMDS beta diversity plots include cultivars DA and TT for the five harvests including experimental field (E), conventional field (C), fall (F), and spring (S) and colored as denoted in the legend. Vectors were computed using EnvFit and only those with P < 0.05 are included in the plots. a Storage at 6 °C. Significant correlations were observed for decay (R2 = 0.756, P = 0.0001), %CO2 (R2 = 0.546, P = 0.0001), and ecpop (R2 = 0.218, P = 0.0053). b Storage at 24 °C. Significant correlations were observed for %CO2 (R2 = 0.326, P = 0.0075), and ecpop (R2 = 0.638, P = 0.0001). Correlation between the lettuce metagenomes and %O2 in the bag was not significant for either storage temperature

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