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Efficacy of Wickerhamomyces anomalus yeast in the biocontrol of blue mold decay in apples and investigation of the mechanisms involved

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Abstract

Blue mold decay is the one of most important postharvest disease of apples caused by the fungus, Penicillium expansum. This study aimed to investigate the biocontrol efficacy of the yeast, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, on postharvest blue mold decay of apples and the relative defense mechanisms. The results indicated that W. anomalus could significantly reduce the blue mold decay of apples, and the maximum inhibition was obtained when the concentration of W. anomalus was 1 × 108 cells ml−1. Furthermore, W. anomalus significantly reduced the fruit decay under ambient conditions, without generating any change in fruit quality. In vitro experiments showed that W. anomalus greatly inhibited the spore germination and germ tube elongation of P. expansum. Besides, its ease of adaptation, stable growth and potential colonization of in apple wounds or surfaces indicated that W. anomalus could compete with P. expansum for nutrients and space, leading to considerable inhibition blue mold decay. W. anomalus significantly induced the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in apples. Moreover, W. anomalus increased the contents of flavonoid and total phenols. All these results suggested that W. anomalus has potential biocontrol efficacy to control the postharvest blue mold decay of apples

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Research Fund for International Young Scientists, National Natural Science Foundation of China (31950410556), the fund from State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology in Shandong Agricultural University (No. 2020KF08), and Practical Innovation Training Program for College Students of Jiangsu University (202010299404X).

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Correspondence to Hongyin Zhang.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest, and this article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors.

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Zhao, L., Wang, Y., Dhanasekaran, S. et al. Efficacy of Wickerhamomyces anomalus yeast in the biocontrol of blue mold decay in apples and investigation of the mechanisms involved. BioControl 66, 547–558 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-021-10088-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-021-10088-5

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