New sustainable approaches for control of postharvest diseases of citrus fruit
type: CreativeWork
description: Injuries sustained by citrus fruit during harvest and postharvest handling and storage allow the entry of wound pathogens, including Penicillium digitatum Sacc (green mold) and P. italicum Wehmer (blue mold), the two major pathogens of citrus fruit being the causal agents of green and blue mold diseases, respectively. Control of these pathogens has classically been conducted with chemical fungicides, but a growing international concern over the often indiscriminate use of synthetic fungicides, the presence of residues in the food and in the environment, as well as the development of fungal resistance and the possible harmful effects on human health, make it necessary to undertake new approaches for disease control that minimize health and environmental risks. In this work we evaluated the effectiveness of inducers of disease resistance for postharvest control of green mold of citrus. The chemical inducers exerted direct antimicrobial activity against of P. digitatum, P. italicum and Geotrichum candidum when tested in vitro on PDA and on orange peel extract agar media, with differences related to their concentrations and challenged pathogens. The antimicrobial efficacy of BABA and chitosan was also confirmed by their ability to inhibit in vitro P. digitatum conidial germination. Moreover, BABA and chitosan significantly reduced disease incidence and severity when applied on citrus fruit. On the opposite, none of ASM concentrations conferred protection against P. digitatum. The induction of resistance of BABA compound was detected on lemon and grapefruit when P. digitatum was inoculated into wounds made at 1 cm from the original BABA-treated sites. Curative and preventive treatments with Pseudomonas syringae, Trichoderma atroviride and Wickerhamomyces anomalus biocontrol strains were evaluated alone and in different combined mixtures with hot water, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, ASM and chitosan. Combined applications of sodium bicarbonate, hot water and bioco…
abstract: Injuries sustained by citrus fruit during harvest and postharvest handling and storage allow the entry of wound pathogens, including Penicillium digitatum Sacc (green mold) and P. italicum Wehmer (blue mold), the two major pathogens of citrus fruit being the causal agents of green and blue mold diseases, respectively. Control of these pathogens has classically been conducted with chemical fungicides, but a growing international concern over the often indiscriminate use of synthetic fungicides, the presence of residues in the food and in the environment, as well as the development of fungal resistance and the possible harmful effects on human health, make it necessary to undertake new approaches for disease control that minimize health and environmental risks. In this work we evaluated the effectiveness of inducers of disease resistance for postharvest control of green mold of citrus. The chemical inducers exerted direct antimicrobial activity against of P. digitatum, P. italicum and Geotrichum candidum when tested in vitro on PDA and on orange peel extract agar media, with differences related to their concentrations and challenged pathogens. The antimicrobial efficacy of BABA and chitosan was also confirmed by their ability to inhibit in vitro P. digitatum conidial germination. Moreover, BABA and chitosan significantly reduced disease incidence and severity when applied on citrus fruit. On the opposite, none of ASM concentrations conferred protection against P. digitatum. The induction of resistance of BABA compound was detected on lemon and grapefruit when P. digitatum was inoculated into wounds made at 1 cm from the original BABA-treated sites. Curative and preventive treatments with Pseudomonas syringae, Trichoderma atroviride and Wickerhamomyces anomalus biocontrol strains were evaluated alone and in different combined mixtures with hot water, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, ASM and chitosan. Combined applications of sodium bicarbonate, hot water and bioco…
author: PLATANIA, CLAUDIA
language: eng
keywords: Citrus fruit, postharvest decay, Penicillium digitatum, biocontrol agents, chemical elicitors, gene expression
date published: 2011-12-07
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:35:15Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Catania
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli studi di Catania

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property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/593489