Abstract
Postharvest strawberry is susceptible to gray mold disease caused by Botrytis cinerea, which seriously damage the storage capacity of fruits. Biological control has been implicated as an effective and safe method to suppress plant disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate the postharvest disease control ability of Bacillus cereus AR156 and explore the response of strawberry fruit to this biocontrol microorganism. Bacillus cereus AR156 treatment significantly suppressed gray mold disease and postponed the strawberry senescence during storage. The bacterium pretreatment remarkably enhanced the reactive oxygen-scavenging and defense-related activities of enzymes. The promotion on the expression of the encoding-genes was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) that significantly increased the expression of the marker genes of salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway, such as PR1, PR2, and PR5, instead of that of the jasmonic acid (JA)/ethylene (ET) pathway, which was also shown. Moreover, through transcriptome profiling, about 6,781 differentially expressed genes (DEGS) in strawberry upon AR156 treatment were identified. The gene ontology (GO) classification and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment indicated that AR156 altered the transcription of numerous transcription factors and genes involved in the SA-related plant disease resistance, metabolism, and biosynthesis of benzoxazinoids and flavonoids. This study offered a non-antagonistic Bacillus as a method for postharvest strawberry storage and disease control, and further revealed that the biocontrol effects were arisen from the induction of host responses on the transcription level and subsequent resistance-related substance accumulation.
Highlights
Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is a popular fruit worldwide, and it is well known for its nutritional compositions and unique flavor
Biological control using beneficial microorganism is a safe method for postharvest disease control
We found that B. cereus AR156 could suppress strawberry gray mold (Figure 1)
Summary
Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is a popular fruit worldwide, and it is well known for its nutritional compositions and unique flavor. Postharvest strawberry suffers from infection of pathogenic microorganisms as well as the primary metabolism that leads to fruit rot and senescence, which results in the deterioration of fruit quality and waste of natural resources. Fungal pathogens is the primary reason for the significant fruit losses during storage (Marín et al, 2017), and gray mold disease caused by Botrytis cinerea is the main fungal disease that threatens the storage of postharvest strawberries (Shao et al, 2013). Large doses of chemicals are required to prevent and control strawberry gray mold, which can lead to pathogen resistance and concerns on food safety and environment (Droby, 2005; Grabke and Stammler, 2015). How to safely and effectively control postharvest diseases and retard the decay has become an impending task
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