Fruit Disease Research Articles

Efficient protocol of de novo shoot organogenesis from somatic embryos for grapevine genetic transformation.

Plant genetic transformation is a powerful tool that can facilitate breeding programs for disease tolerance, abiotic stress, fruit production, and quality by preserving the characteristics of fruit tree elite genotypes. However, most grapevine cultivars worldwide are considered recalcitrant, and most available genetic transformation protocols involve regeneration by somatic embryogenesis, which often requires the continuous production of new embryogenic calli. Cotyledons and hypocotyls derived from flower-induced somatic embryos of the Vitis vinifera cultivars Ancellotta and Lambrusco Salamino, in comparison with the model cultivar Thompson Seedless, are here validated for the first time as starting explants for in vitro regeneration and transformation trials. Explants were cultured on two different MS-based culture media, one having a combination of 4.4 µM BAP and 0.49 µM IBA (M1), and the other only supplemented with 13.2 µM BAP (M2). The competence to regenerate adventitious shoots was higher in cotyledons than in hypocotyls on both M1 and M2. M2 medium increased significantly the average number of shoots only in Thompson Seedless somatic embryo-derived explants. This efficient regeneration strategy, that proposes a combination of somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis, has been successfully exploited in genetic engineering experiments. Ancellotta and Lambrusco Salamino cotyledons and hypocotyls produced the highest number of calli expressing eGFP when cultured on M2 medium, while for Thompson Seedless both media tested were highly efficient. The regeneration of independent transgenic lines of Thompson Seedless was observed from cotyledons cultured on both M1 and M2 with a transformation efficiency of 12 and 14%, respectively, and from hypocotyls on M1 and M2 with a transformation efficiency of 6 and 12%, respectively. A single eGFP fluorescent adventitious shoot derived from cotyledons cultured on M2 was obtained for Ancellotta, while Lambrusco Salamino showed no regeneration of transformed shoots. In a second set of experiments, using Thompson Seedless as the model cultivar, we observed that the highest number of transformed shoots was obtained from cotyledons explants, followed by hypocotyls and meristematic bulk slices, confirming the high regeneration/transformation competences of somatic embryo-derived cotyledons. The independent transformed shoots obtained from the cultivars Thompson Seedless and Ancellotta were successfully acclimatized in the greenhouse and showed a true-to-type phenotype. The novel in vitro regeneration and genetic transformation protocols optimized in this study will be useful for the application of new and emerging modern biotechnologies also to other recalcitrant grapevine genotypes.

Synergy between pre-harvest practices and storage conditions to achieve good quality nectarines and prevent brown rot losses during storage: A modeling framework

Pre- and post-harvest stages are rarely considered together in modeling studies of fruit quality and disease development, despite evident connections between these two fruit life stages in terms of underlying processes.In order to fill this gap, a new modeling framework has been introduced to simulate the effects of pre-harvest practices (irrigation regime and fruit thinning intensity) and storage conditions (temperature and relative humidity) on the development of fruit quality traits during the growing season and storage, fruit yield, and the appearance of brown rot infections during storage. The model was specifically built and calibrated for nectarine (Prunus persica var. nucipersica). A set of performance criteria was defined based on model outputs describing fruit quality (fruit size and sweetness), yield and fruit loss during storage (caused by excessive mass loss or brown rot infections). A sensitivity analysis was then carried out to study the relationships between performance criteria and pre-harvest practices and storage conditions. Finally, the model was used in combination with an optimization algorithm to retrieve the pre- and post-harvest scenarios that maximized fruit quality and quantity, aggregated into a unique performance score. This was done for different storage times and the relative importance assigned to fruit quality criteria. The results revealed that irrigation regime and thinning intensity were significant in defining fruit quality traits, while storage conditions influenced fruit loss during storage. The interactions between pre- and post-harvest conditions were also found to be important when considering the fruit loss related to brown rot infections and the fruit yield at the end of storage. The importance assigned to quality criteria largely affected the optimization outcomes. Thus, the best scenario had moderate water deficit and a low-to-medium thinning intensity when the importance of the fruit sweetness index was high, and well-irrigated regimes and very low thinning intensity when it was lower. The results also indicated a trade-off between quality criteria and, in particular, sweetness and fruit yield. The proposed modeling framework highlighted the fact that the pre- and post-harvest conditions should be considered together because they can influence both fruit quality and quantity, including fruit loss due to brown rot. The model could therefore be used as a tool to enhance dialogue between fruit supply chain actors and to identify solutions to meet their expectations.

Biofumigation by Mustard Plants as an Application for Controlling Postharvest Gray Mold in Apple Fruits

Gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea is a critical disease that results in severe postharvest losses for the apple industry. In recent years, biological control has become an increasingly effective approach for controlling postharvest diseases in fruits. Brassica plants contain abundant natural compounds with known antimicrobial activity against numerous plant pathogens. In this study, a large-scale screening of 90 mustard cultivars was conducted to evaluate their biofumigation effects against B. cinerea. Among these, one mustard cultivar named Dilong-1, displayed the highest inhibitory effect against B. cinerea, and was able to completely inhibit mycelial growth. Further investigations showed that fumigation with Dilong-1 inhibited mycelial growth, sporulation, and spore germination of B. cinerea in vitro. In addition, fumigation using Dilong-1 showed a wide antifungal spectrum, including other fruit postharvest pathogens such as Phytophthora litchii. Furthermore, apple gray mold disease severity was significantly reduced by biofumigation using Dilong-1. Importantly, fumigation with Dilong-1 did not negatively impact final apple qualities, including weight loss, firmness, and total soluble solids. These results suggested that Dilong-1 significantly inhibited gray mold decay caused by B. cinerea without affecting the quality of apple fruits. In conclusion, biological fumigation of apple fruits with the mustard cultivar Dilong-1 is a promising eco-friendly approach for controlling apple gray mold during storage and shipment.

Physiology and Application of Gibberellins in Postharvest Horticultural Crops

Gibberellins (GAs) are plant hormones indispensable in regulating the growth and development of fruits. Recent studies have shown that GAs play important roles in delaying horticultural crop ripening and senescence, enhancing the internal and external quality of horticultural crops and resistance to stress and disease. We reviewed the role of GAs in the postharvest physiology of fruits in recent years. GAs are closely related to their ability to retard fruit senescence. GAs could effectively improve fruit storage quality and significantly increase flesh hardness, reduce respiration intensity, inhibit the release of endogenous ethylene, and effectively inhibit fruit softening and ripening. It can also improve the intrinsic and extrinsic quality of fruit storage by improving fruit shape, regulating color, delaying the reduction of soluble solids, promoting sugar accumulation, and delaying vitamin loss. GAs also play a role in postharvest biotic and abiotic stress resistance. The GA treatment effectively reduces the cold damage index, reduces the production and accumulation of superoxide anion(O2−), improves the antioxidant capacity of fruits, and maintains the integrity of cell membranes during low-temperature storage. Moreover, GAs could effectively control some postharvest fruit diseases. In conclusion, GAs play an important role in the physiological regulation of postharvest fruits and have important application prospects in postharvest fruits.

Genome-Wide Discovery of Structural Variants Reveals Distinct Variant Dynamics for Two Closely Related Monilinia Species.

Structural variants (SVs) are variants with sizes bigger than 50 bp and capable of changing the size, copy number, location, orientation, and sequence content of genomic DNA. Although these variants have been proven to be extensive and involved in many evolutionary processes along the tree of life, there is still insufficient information on many fungal plant pathogens. In this study, the extent of SVs, as well as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), has been determined for two prominent species of the Monilinia genus (the causal agents of brown rot disease in pome and stone fruits): Monilinia fructicola and Monilinia laxa for the first time. The genomes of M. fructicola were found to be more variant-rich in contrast to M. laxa based on the reference-based variant calling (with a total number of 266.618 and 190.599 SNPs and 1,540 and 918 SVs, respectively). The extent, as well as distribution of SVs, presented high conservation within the species and high diversity between the species. Investigation of potential functional effects of characterized variants revealed high potential relevance of SVs. Moreover, the detailed characterization of copy number variations (CNVs) for each isolate revealed that around 0.67% of M. fructicola genomes and 2.06% of M. laxa genomes are copy number variables. The variant catalog as well as distinct variant dynamics within and between the species presented in this study opens doors for many further research questions.

The role of different natural organic acids in postharvest fruit quality management and its mechanism

AbstractFresh fruits have good flavor and high nutritional value, but in the postharvest stage they will age and decay rapidly, so we need to find green postharvest fruit preservatives. And natural organic acids are promising natural fruit preservatives due to their safety and effectiveness. The present work reviews recent applications of natural organic acids in postharvest fruit quality management and discussed its potential biochemical mechanisms. This work indicates that numerous natural organic acids are effective postharvest fruit preservatives, such as oxalic acid, salicylic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, phenolic acid and terpenic acid. Natural organic acid treatments can improve postharvest fruit quality, as reflected by delaying senescence, alleviating chilling injury, controlling disease, and inhibiting browning. And natural organic acid can have multiple benefits on postharvest fruit. Natural organic acids also play a variety of roles in postharvest fruit disease control. In addition, chemical modification and cotreatment of natural organic acids can be performed to improve the efficiency of postharvest fruit preservation applications. The work provides an important reference for postharvest fruit quality management and the development of natural OAs fruit preservatives.

Metschnikowia pulcherrima as an efficient biocontrol agent of Botrytis cinerea infection in apples: Unraveling protection mechanisms through yeast proteomics

The results obtained in this study show that the Mp-30 strain of Metschnikowia pulcherrima is able to completely prevent Botrytis cinerea infection in apples, which is a major postharvest disease of fruits throughout the world. We have observed that although Mp-30 is able to rapidly colonize wounds, sequestrate iron and secrete antifungal compounds, other unknown mechanisms that occur in the early phase of the yeast-fungal interaction must be implicated in the biocontrol response. The main objective of this study was to identify the pathways involved in the mechanism of action of Mp-30 against B. cinerea in apples. Therefore, differentially accumulated yeast proteins in the presence/absence of B. cinerea on wounded apples were studied to elucidate Mp-30 biocontrol mechanisms and regulation at the protein level. A comparative proteomic analysis showed that 114 yeast proteins were increased and 61 were decreased. The Mp-30 antagonistic response mainly showed the increase of (1) gene expression and protein translation related proteins, (2) trafficking and vesicle-mediated transport related proteins, (3) pyruvate metabolism and mitochondrial proteins related to energy and amino acid production, (4) fatty acid synthesis, and (5) cell envelope related proteins. On the other hand, redox homeostasis, and amino acid and carbon metabolism were downregulated. Since there is no yeast growth enhancement associated with the presence of B. cinerea, such regulation mechanisms may be related to the reprogramming of metabolism, synthesis of new compounds and reorganization of yeast cell structure. Indeed, the results show that several pathways cooperate in restructuring the plasma membrane and cell wall composition, highlighting their major role in the antagonistic interactions for apple protection against gray mold proliferation. These results are of great interest since they provide a clear insight into the yeast mechanisms involved in B. cinerea inactivation during the first hours of contact in the wounded fruit. They shed light on the unknown yeast molecular biocontrol mechanisms.

Fruit Tree Disease Recognition Based on Residual Neural Network and Attention Mechanism

Fruit growing has played a huge role in solving food supply issues in many coutries. However, the yield and quality of fruits can be affected by various diseases, and thus timely and accurate identification of disease conditions is particularly important. Currently, using image recognition and object detection technology to diagnose fruit tree diseases has become a research hotspot in forestry informatization. Convolutional neural networks eliminate the preprocessing of manual feature selection and have high recognition performance. However, it is not easy to train due to the risk of gradient disappearance. In order to achieve better recognition effect, this research addresses the problem of applying small-scale data samples through data enhancement and transfer learning, and it optimizes the model by combining the two main attention mechanisms of SE and CBAM with ResNet50. Through experiments, it is found that the CBAM ResNet50 model has the best effect, improving the application performance of the studied model in actual scenarios.

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase is required for fire blight disease establishment in apple fruitlets

Host sugar resource utilization is an essential aspect of parasitism by Erwinia amylovora, the bacterium that causes fire blight disease of pome fruits. We assessed the virulence of E. amylovora glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapA) mutants, which are predicted to be defective in sugar utilization through both glycolysis and the phosphogluconate pathway. A plasmid insertion mutant and an allelic exchange mutant of gapA were generated and found to be avirulent in apple fruitlets. The gapA insertion mutant was unstable, with insertion element excision resulting in restoration of pathogenicity. The results indicate that gapA is essential for E. amylovora virulence on apple fruitlets.

Yolo-Papaya: A Papaya Fruit Disease Detector and Classifier Using CNNs and Convolutional Block Attention Modules

Agricultural losses due to post-harvest diseases can reach up to 30% of total production. Detecting diseases in fruits at an early stage is crucial to mitigate losses and ensure the quality and health of fruits. However, this task is challenging due to the different formats, sizes, shapes, and colors that the same disease can present. Convolutional neural networks have been proposed to address this issue, but most studies use self-built datasets with few samples per disease, hindering reproducibility and comparison of techniques. To address these challenges, the authors proposed a novel image dataset comprising 23,158 examples divided into nine classes of papaya fruit diseases, and a robust papaya fruit disease detector called Yolo-Papaya based on the YoloV7 detector with the implementation of a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) attention mechanism. This detector achieved an overall mAP (mean average precision) of 86.2%, with a performance of over 98% in classes such as “healthy fruits” and “Phytophthora blight”. The proposed detector and dataset can be used in practical applications for fruit quality control and are consolidated as a robust benchmark for the task of papaya fruit disease detection. The image dataset and all source code used in this study are available to the academic community on the project page, enabling reproducibility of the study and advancement of research in this domain.

Assessment of antagonistic attributes exopolysaccharide producing halophiles against phytopathogen and post-harvest application

The presented investigation aimed to screen for exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing halophilic microbes having antagonistic effect against Xanthomonas citri causing canker disease in citrus plants. The produced exopolysaccharide was applied as edible coating on lemon fruits to deduce its effect on onset of citrus canker upon treatment of Xanthomonas citri. The sea water and soil samples of Dummas, Ubhrat and Hajira beaches of Surat districts of Gujarat state of India were screened for the isolation of halophiles revealing antagonistic effects against the preisolated Xanthomonas citri. The obtained result showed that from 7 exopolysaccharide producing halophiles, DUIS04 revealed growth inhibition of Xanthomonas when cocultured. The antagonistic attributes of DUIS04 were qualitatively assessed by standard procedures in which hydrolytic enzyme production viz. cellulase, amylase and chitinase, HCN production, biofilm and EPS production were positive. The produced EPS was recovered in crude form from culture broth by alcohol precipitation, dialyzed, lyophilized and stored at 42 oC for further use. The coating formulation was prepared by taking 2% (w/v) EPS as polymer matrix and mixing it with 0.1% of Tween 80 (w/w) and 1% sorbitol additives and sprayed on fresh lemons taken from botanical garden of Institution. The treated lemons were retreated with Xanthomonas suspension and incubated for 15 to 17 days. The control group of lemons were not treated with EPS and when sprayed with the Xanthomonas citri culture suspension, visible cankers were developed upon 13 to 15 days of incubation. However, the EPS treated group of fruits didn’t reveal canker development during same incubation. Consequently, the halophilic EPS was deduced to possess antagonistic effect on colonization of gram negative Xanthomonas citri bacteria and can inhibit the cancer disease in citric fruits which prolog the post-harvest shelf life.

Diversity of Fungal Communities on Diseased and Healthy Cinnamomum burmannii Fruits and Antibacterial Activity of Secondary Metabolites.

The composition and structure of fungal communities on healthy and diseased fruits of Cinnamomum burmannii (Nees and Nees) Blume were characterized, with evaluation of the antibacterial activity of secondary metabolites from culturable fungi following the first identification of secondary metabolites in the fungus Medicopsis romeroi (Esf-14; GenBank accession number OK242756). These results are significant for understanding the functional variation in bioactivity in fungal communities and developing a broader range of bioactive resources. High-throughput sequencing results indicated that the fungal community in diseased fruit differed from that in healthy fruit at the phylum, class, order, or genus level, with significant differences in the species and relative abundance of the dominant flora. A total of 49 (healthy fruit) and 122 (diseased fruit) artificially cultivable endophytic fungi were isolated, and 41 different strains (11 from healthy fruit and 30 from diseased fruit) were successfully identified by morphological and molecular biological analyses, which were classified into 8 groups and 23 genera by phylogenetic tree analysis, with Pleosporales, Glomerellales, and Hypocreales being the dominant groups at the order level and Colletotrichum being the dominant group at the genus level. The results of the antibacterial assay demonstrated that the secondary metabolites of all strains had different degrees of antibacterial activity, while the secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi from diseased fruit were generally stronger than those of fungi from healthy fruit, with the active secondary metabolites dominated by small and moderately polar compounds. Combined analysis of fungal communities, phylogenetic tree analysis, and bioactivity analysis of culturable strains revealed strong antibacterial activity of both upregulated and downregulated flora in diseased fruit. Five compounds, including two new (5,6-dimethoxy-[1',1:4,1″-terphenyl]-2-ol [compound 1] and 5-(methoxycarbonyl)-2-methylbenzo[d][1,3]dioxole-2-carboxylic acid [compound 2]) and three known compounds (3,7-dihydroxy-1,9-dimethyldibenzofuran [compound 3], methyl 3-hydroxybenzoate [compound 4], and uracil [compound 5]), were isolated and identified for the first time from the endophytic fungus Medicopsis romeroi. In general, the diversity of fungal communities on diseased fruit was lower than that on healthy fruits, while the antibacterial activity of artificially cultured endophytic fungi on diseased fruits was generally stronger than that on healthy fruits, suggesting excellent promise for the development of secondary metabolites from active strains on diseased fruit as antibacterial agents. IMPORTANCE Powdery fruit disease is a notorious disease of Cinnamomum burmannii that causes severe loss in fruit production. Studies on the function of endophytic fungal communities in healthy plant tissues are not new, while little is known about the functional changes of fungal communities in disease-causing plant tissues. Our results demonstrate that fungal communities in diseased fruits differ from those in healthy fruits at the level of phylum, class, order, or genus, with significant differences in the species and relative abundance of dominant groups. Endophytic fungi in diseased fruits appeared to produce secondary metabolites with stronger antibacterial properties, although the community diversity was not as varied as that in healthy fruits. In addition, secondary metabolites of the Medicopsis romeroi strain from diseased fruits were identified for the first time. These results have important implications for understanding the functional variation of bioactivity in fungal communities and for developing a broader resource of bioactivity.

Subcellular damages of pathogenic fungi combined with gene expression analysis reveals mechanisms that cold plasma controlling apricot disease

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma technology has proven effective in controlling postharvest fungus in fruits and vegetables. However, its mechanism of action is rarely reported. In this study, DBD technology was investigated to inhibit apricot diseases under the conditions of shelf simulation, and its mechanism was analysed. Apricot fruits and pathogenic fungal spores were treated with DBD of different voltage intensities（fruits: 80 kV, 90 kV, 100 kV; spores: 80 kV, 100 kV, 120 kV). Experimental data showed that DBD plasma treatment significantly reduced the microbial biomass on the surface of apricot fruit and inhibit Rhizopus oryzae and Alternaria tenuissima. Rhizopus oryzae and Alternaria tenuissima's spore germination decreased by 74.7% and 82.0%, respectively, after 40 s of processing with 100 kV DBD treatment. To investigate DBD plasma's antibacterial mechanism, deoxyribonucleic acid damage and the morphological characteristics of fungal spores were determined; this indicated that DBD plasma treatment resulted in nuclear degradation and cell deformation. In addition, DBD treatment enhanced apricots' expression of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase 1 (PAL1), aldehyde dehydrogenase 2B7 (ALDH2B7) and GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (VTC2), delayed disease and improved quality under shelf storage conditions. The results demonstrated that DBD plasma treatment could control the primary diseases of apricot fruit and enhance the quality by destroying microbial spores and activating the disease-resistant genes of the fruit.

Soil bacterial communities associated with marbled fruit in Citrus reticulata Blanco 'Orah'.

Citrus reticulata Blanco 'Orah' is grown throughout southern China and provides enormous economic value. However, the agricultural industry has suffered substantial losses during recent years due to marbled fruit disease. The present study focuses on the soil bacterial communities associated with marbled fruit in 'Orah'. The agronomic traits and microbiomes of plants with normal and marbled fruit from three different orchards were compared. No significant differences were found in agronomic traits between the groups, except for higher fruit yields and higher quality of fruits in normal fruit group. Additionally, a total of 2,106,050 16S rRNA gene sequences were generated via the NovoSeq 6000. The alpha diversity index (including the Shannon and Simpson indices), Bray-Curtis similarity, and principal component analyses indicated no significant differences in microbiome diversity between normal and marbled fruit groups. For the healthy 'Orah', the most abundant associated phyla were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. In comparison, Burkholderiaceae and Acidobacteria were the most abundant taxa with the marbled fruit group. In addition, the family Xanthomonadaceae and the genus Candidatus Nitrosotalea were prevalent with this group. Analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways showed that several pathways related to metabolism significantly differed between the groups. Thus, the present study provides valuable information regarding soil bacterial communities associated with marbled fruit in 'Orah'.

Antifungal activities of aqueous extracts of moroccan medicinal plants against Monilinia spp. agent of brown rot disease

Apple fruit is one of the worldwide most industrially valuable horticulture crops. However, the fruit is vulnerable to post-harvest brown rot degradation caused by Monilinia laxa and Monilinia fructigena, which is a prominent pre-and post-harvest disease of tree fruit. Numerous non-chemical post-harvest treatments have been investigated so far to control these pathogens to provide an alternative option to the synthetic fungicides that are commonly used and may have negative effects on human health and the environment. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the in vitro and in vivo efficacy at different concentrations of nine plants' aqueous extracts from Mentha pulegium, Citrus aurantium, Thymus vulgaris, Origanum compactum, Lavandula angustifolia, Syzygium aromaticum, Rosmarinus officinalis, Citrus sinensis and Eucalyptus radiate against the development of brown rot. The results demonstrated significant antifungal activities of all tested aqueous extracts on both fungi compared to the thiophanate-methyl fungicide (1 ppm) (100% inhibition). At the concentration of 1.5 mg/ml, S. aromaticum and O. compactum extracts were the most effective, showing significant inhibition values against M. laxa (91.06%) and against M. fructigena (90.02%). Interestingly, at higher concentration, spore germination of both Monilinia strains was significantly reduced with inhibition rate of 98.64% for M. laxa and 93.04% for M. fructigena. Also, high flavonoids and polyphenols contents were shown. Aqueous extracts of O. compactum, S. aromaticum, and T. vulgaris reduced the brown rot severity and incidence in vivo. The application of these plants' aqueous extracts on fruits seems to have a significant effect on fruit quality persistence, as indicated by weight loss, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, titrable acidity, and maturity index during 15 days of storage at 4 °C. The spectra analyzed from all tested plants revealed typical peaks and a large variety of functional groups such as C–H bonds, O–H groups, and C–C stretching. The plant’s aqueous extracts studied can be used as bio-fungicides against brown rot diseases.

β-1,3-GLUCANASE10 regulates tomato development and disease resistance by modulating callose deposition.

β-1,3-Glucanases are considered key regulators responsible for the degradation of callose in plants, yet little is known about the role and mode of action of their encoding genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). In the present study, we identified the β-1,3-glucanase encoding gene β-1,3-GLUCANASE10 (SlBG10) and revealed its regulation in tomato pollen and fruit development, seed production, and disease resistance by modulating callose deposition. Compared to wild-type or SlBG10 overexpressing (SlBG10-OE) lines, knockout of SlBG10 caused pollen arrest and failure to set fruit with reduced male rather than female fecundity. Further analyses showed that SlBG10-knockout promoted callose deposition in anther at the tetrad-to-microspore stages, resulting in pollen abortion and male sterility. Moreover, loss-of-function SlBG10 delayed degradation of endosperm cell wall calloses during cellularization and impeded early seed development. We also uncovered that Botrytis cinerea infection induces SlBG10 expression in wild-type tomato, and the knockout lines showed increased callose accumulation in fruit pericarps, reduced susceptibility to B. cinerea and enhanced antioxidant capacity to maintain tomato fruit quality. However, expression of genes encoding cell wall hydrolases decreased in SlBG10-knockout tomatoes and thus led to an increase in pericarp epidermal thickness, enhancement in fruit firmness, reduction of fruit water loss and extension of tomato shelf life. These findings not only expand our understanding of the involvement of β-1,3-glucanases as callose regulators in multiple developmental processes and pathogen resistance, but also provide additional insight into the manipulation of multi-agronomic traits for targeted tomato breeding.

Changes in quality and microbiome composition of strawberry fruits following postharvest application of Debaryomyces hansenii, a yeast biocontrol agent

Microbial antagonists provide a new perspective on biological control by altering microbial diversity to control postharvest diseases of fruit. In this study, the biological control effect of Debaryomyces hansenii on postharvest diseases of strawberry and the influence on strawberry quality were determined. At the same time, the effect of D. hansenii on the composition of surface microbiome of strawberry fruit was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that D. hansenii treatment can inhibit the natural decay rate of strawberries, and the treatment group maintained a higher ascorbic acid content than the control group. However, there was no difference between the control and treatment groups in firmness, weight loss rate, soluble solids, titratable acidity, and other quality indicators. On the surface of strawberries treated with D. hansenii, the diversity of fungal community was changed, the composition and structure of the community were also altered (except the abundance of Debaryomyces spp.). Strawberries treated with D. hansenii could alter bacterial and fungal populations, inhibit plant pathogens, and lower the frequency of postharvest diseases in strawberries. This study helps to understand the microbial community structure on the surface of strawberries and guides the synthesis of strawberry postharvest disease complex biocontrol strains to achieve stable and sustainable postharvest disease control strategies of the fruits.

On the use of hot water treatment to control crown rot postharvest diseases of export banana fruit (Musa sp., Group AAA, subgroup Cavendish, ‘Williams’)

On the use of hot water treatment to control crown rot postharvest diseases of export banana fruit (<i>Musa</i> sp., Group AAA, subgroup Cavendish, ‘Williams’)

Implementation of Disease Detection in Fruits using Neural Networks

Commercialized agricultural operations are always looking for ways to reduce labour requirements without compromising output. Images of a few differ- ent fruit diseases, including Bitter Rot, and Sooty Blotch are employed in this method. Fruit infections’ ability to lower productivity and the global economy in the agricultural sector is a frustrating situation. In actuality, a healthy diet should be built around fruits. India has a population that is approximately 68 per cent dependent on agriculture. A significant percentage of the Indian econ- omy is based on agriculture. Fruit cultivation has been a vital part of agricul- ture all over the world and has been the foundation of rural economies. Moni- toring a plant’s health and spotting illness manually is challenging. Agribusi- ness is a major contributor to the global economy, but its growth is slowing when compared to the rise in interest, and this ratio of interest to creation is expected to maintain high in the next few generations.

Klasifikasi Penyakit pada Citra Buah Jeruk Menggunakan Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) dengan Arsitektur Alexnet

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Citrus fruit is a plant that is very susceptible to disease. Diseases that often attack citrus fruits are usually in the form of spots on the fruit. Diagnostics of citrus fruit diseases are usually carried out by experts manually which can cause the results to be subjective. Not all farmers are experts in diagnosing citrus fruit diseases. Therefore, this study proposes a system for diagnosing citrus fruit diseases using computer vision based on deep learning. So that the model can be used on computers with limited resources, this study proposes the Alexnet model, which is relatively light but has proven excellent accuracy in classifying several datasets. The dataset used is citrus fruit disease images of 1790 images which are divided into 4 classes, namely blackspot, canker, grenning, and healthy fruit. The best results achieved with a scenario of 90% training data and 10% validation data are with an accuracy of 94,34%, a precision of 93,0%, a recall of 94,0%, and an F1-score of 95,0%. The best results are obtained with a combination of dropout, batch normalization, and fully-connected layer scenarios in the classifier layers section.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;