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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sugarbeet Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #415907

Research Project: Improving Sugarbeet Productivity and Sustainability through Genetic, Genomic, Physiological, and Phytopathological Approaches

Location: Sugarbeet Research

Title: Abiotic factors and sugarbeet storage pathogens promote ethanol accumulation in postharvest sugarbeet roots

Author
item Fugate, Karen
item Eide, John
item MORIN, MERCEDES - North Dakota State University
item FINGER, FERNANDO - Universidade Federal De Vicosa
item LAFTA, ABBAS - North Dakota State University

Submitted to: American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) roots are stored in large outdoor piles or sheds for up to 140 days before freezing for long-term storage or processing into sugar. During this storage period, roots are known to lose sucrose to respiration and storage diseases. However, recent observations by a U.S. sugarbeet processor suggest that additional sucrose may be lost due to ethanol formation. Presently, no studies have quantified ethanol production in stored sugarbeet roots or evaluated abiotic or biotic factors that may influence postharvest ethanol accumulation. Research was conducted to quantify ethanol production in stored roots and identify environmental and microbial factors that may promote its accumulation in storage. Changes in root ethanol concentration were determined as a function of time in storage and reduced ventilation, and in response to wounding and common storage pathogens. These studies demonstrated that ethanol concentration progressively increased with time in storage. However, reductions in oxygen concentration and increases in carbon dioxide concentration that were made to mimic the atmospheric conditions surrounding roots when ventilation is insufficient had no impact on ethanol concentration of stored roots. In contrast, wounding had a small but significant increase in ethanol accumulation, while infection of roots by the fungal pathogens, Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium vulpinum, increased ethanol concentrations, respectively. An examination of the expression of ethanol biosynthetic genes as a function of storage duration found that both of the two genes that encode pyruvate decarboxylase and two of the nine genes encoding alcohol dehydrogenase were upregulated during storage. These studies provide the first evidence for ethanol accumulation in stored sugarbeet roots and identify abiotic and biotic factors that affect ethanol accumulation in postharvest sugarbeet roots. This information is expected to aid the sugarbeet industry in developing strategies to reduce sucrose fermentative losses.