Abstract
In carrots, stored at 4 to 6 °C, the proportion of roots in which the infection arising from wound-inoculation with a mycelial disk of Botrytis cinerea became localized, decreased if (a) the roots were allowed to lose water prior to inoculation and (b) the roots were kept for an increasing length of time in cold-storage prior to inoculation. When dissected from such roots 55 days after inoculation, tissue involved in this resistant reaction had increased levels of 6-methoxy mellein compared with healthy tissue or tissue from the edges of developing roots. Increased levels of chlorogenic acid and total phenols were associated with both the resistant reaction and wounding. The levels of 6-methoxy mellein, chlorogenic acid and total phenols which had accumulated in actively resistant root tissue 55 days after inoculation declined with increasing time of roots in cold-storage prior to that inoculation. The ED 50 of 6-methoxy mellein to the mycelial extension rate of B. cinerea on an agar medium at 20 to 23·5 °C was 7·0 × 10 −4 m (0·15 mg ml −1). In time-course experiments at 20 °C, 6-methoxy mellein accumulated to fungitoxic concentrations in the resistant, but not in the susceptible, reaction to the fungus. The possible applications of the results in improving the keeping quality of carrots and in optimizing and assessing their cold-storage potential is discussed.
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