Abstract

Fungal storage rots like blue mould, grey mould, bull’s eye rot, bitter rot and brown rot destroy large amounts of the harvested apple crop around the world. Application of fungicides is nowadays severely restricted in many countries and production systems, and these problems are therefore likely to increase. Considerable variation among apple cultivars in resistance/susceptibility has been reported, suggesting that efficient defence mechanisms can be selected for and used in plant breeding. These are, however, likely to vary between pathogens, since some fungi are mainly wound-mediated while others attack through lenticels or by infecting blossoms. Since mature fruits are considerably more susceptible than immature fruits, mechanisms involving fruit-ripening processes are likely to play an important role. Significant associations have been detected between the susceptibility to rots in harvested fruit and various fruit maturation-related traits like ripening time, fruit firmness at harvest and rate of fruit softening during storage, as well as fruit biochemical contents like acidity, sugars and polyphenols. Some sources of resistance to blue mould have been described, but more research is needed on the development of spore inoculation methods that produce reproducible data and can be used for large screenings, especially for lenticel-infecting fungi.

Highlights

  • Apple Malus × domestica is one of the most important and well-studied fruit crops in the world, growers still face a number of unresolved problems with production, storage and marketing.A major proportion of the commercially grown fruit is intended for marketing after a period of at least four months in cold storage

  • The number of approved fungicides has decreased in conventional production systems, and postharvest applications are completely banned in an increasing number of countries [4], while treatment with the protective gas 1-MCP (1-methylcyclopropene) is avoided, e.g., in Scandinavia, for marketing reasons, emphasizing the need for apple cultivars with a higher resistance

  • 82 Swedish-grown apple cultivars previously phenotyped for fruit firmness, fruit softening rate and lesion diameter after wound inoculation with P. expansum, were subsequently screened by Taqman® and high-resolution melting (HRM) assays for 15 qPCR-based molecular markers [102]

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Summary

Introduction

Apple Malus × domestica is one of the most important and well-studied fruit crops in the world, growers still face a number of unresolved problems with production, storage and marketing. The number of approved fungicides has decreased in conventional production systems, and postharvest applications are completely banned in an increasing number of countries [4], while treatment with the protective gas 1-MCP (1-methylcyclopropene) is avoided, e.g., in Scandinavia, for marketing reasons, emphasizing the need for apple cultivars with a higher resistance. Methods for quantifying damage caused by various storage rots are described, and information is provided about the impact of some fruit-ripening-related traits on susceptibility to storage rots. This will be valuable for plant breeders aiming to produce cultivars with an improved ability to withstand attacks of storage rots

Fungi That Cause Storage Rot
Quantification of Storage Rot Damage
Method
Resistance Mechanisms and Quest for Resistance Genes
Possible Associations between Fruit Ripening and Resistance
Findings
Conclusions and Perspectives
Full Text
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