Isolation and Molecular Characterization of the Romaine Lettuce Phylloplane Mycobiome

Romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an important staple of American agriculture. Unlike many vegetables, romaine lettuce is typically consumed raw. Phylloplane microbes occur naturally on plant leaves; consumption of uncooked leaves includes consumption of phylloplane microbes. Despite this fact, the microbes that naturally occur on produce such as romaine lettuce are for the most part uncharacterized. In this study, we conducted culture-based studies of the fungal romaine lettuce phylloplane community from organic and conventionally grown samples. In addition to an enumeration of all such microbes, we define and provide a discussion of the genera that form the “core” romaine lettuce mycobiome, which represent 85.5% of all obtained isolates: Alternaria, Aureobasidium, Cladosporium, Filobasidium, Naganishia, Papiliotrema, Rhodotorula, Sampaiozyma, Sporobolomyces, Symmetrospora and Vishniacozyma. We highlight the need for additional mycological expertise in that 23% of species in these core genera appear to be new to science and resolve some taxonomic issues we encountered during our work with new combinations for Aureobasidiumbupleuri and Curvibasidium nothofagi. Finally, our work lays the ground for future studies that seek to understand the effect these communities may have on preventing or facilitating establishment of exogenous microbes, such as food spoilage microbes and plant or human pathogens.