Abstract

Harvested edible mushrooms decay quickly due to the growth of spoilage bacteria. The current study revealed the variations of bacterial communities and the growth behaviors of potential spoilage bacteria inhabiting harvested edible fruiting bodies of Lentinus edodes, Pleurotus ostreatus, and Hypsizygus marmoreus at an ambient temperature of 25 °C. The composition and abundance of the bacterial community inhabiting the mushrooms were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing method and quantitative PCR, respectively. Then, the growth models of potential spoilage bacterial populations were tested by nonlinear regression using Gompertz mathematical models. The results indicated that the 16S rRNA gene abundance of the bacterial community in the fruiting body of H. marmoreus was increased from 1.45 × 10⁴ copies/g.d.m. (copies per gram of dry material) to 3.37 × 10⁶ copies/g.d.m. after 72 h storage. For the bacterial community composition, the enteric bacteria cluster, Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, Lactococcus, Sphingobacterium, and Stenotrophomonas, were predominant bacterial populations and varied notably in the harvested edible mushrooms. The bacterial community’s metabolism pathways related to the growth were active in harvested edible mushrooms. Finally, the fitting plots of nonlinear regression indicated that the potential spoilage bacterial populations’ growth parameters differed among the mushrooms. The Pseudomonas, enteric bacteria cluster, and Stenotrophomona inhabiting the fruiting body of H. marmoreus reached a stationary phase within the 12 h storage; however, the enteric bacteria cluster, Pseudomonas, Chryseobacterium, Stenotrophomonas, and Burkholderia inhabiting fruiting body of P. ostreatus and L. edodes would continue to increase in the storage of the mushrooms. The current study helps monitor the spoilage microorganisms and predict the shelf life of harvested edible mushrooms.