Biodiversity of mycoflora of vegetative and generative organs of highbush blueberry

Highbush blueberry is a crop whose cultivation is growing rapidly and is expected to continue to expand. Therefore, research into the further identification and characterisation of the microbiome of highbush blueberry is becoming increasingly important.

The study was conducted in in 2022-2025. To assess the structure of the communities, the Shannon index (H’), Simpson dominance index (D), Pielu index (J’) and Simpson diversity index (1–D) were used.

In total, 22 genera were identified. The greatest species richness was observed on leaves and branches, where fungi of 19 and 18 genera, respectively, were identified. These organs exhibited the highest diversity according to both the Shannon index (H' = 2.31 and 2.10) and the Simpson index (1–D = 0.87 and 0.84). This indicates that their mycoflora is the most complex and rich. They also have a very high similarity in the species composition (81%). At the same time, the berries fungal complex differs significantly from vegetative organs (54–56% shared species).

For the branches, the Pielu index was the lowest (J' = 0.725), which is explained by the marked dominance of certain species (in particular Alternaria spp. with isolation frequency of 93%), which constitute a significant proportion of the entire complex, and indicates the formation of stable complexes of dominant species. The highest evenness (J' = 0.885) was observed for berries, where the proportions of the isolated genera are more uniform, with no marked predominance.

Thus, leaves exhibit the highest biodiversity of the mycoflora. The mycoflora complexes of branches and leaves have a similar composition. However, a stronger dominance of certain taxa is observed on branches, which reduces the evenness index. The mycoflora of berries is less diverse, despite the absence of unique fungal species in its composition, which indicates a high degree of specificity in the colonisation conditions.