A wound healing period decreases Penicillium expansum incidence during postharvest in apples

Despite the current use of chemical fungicides, Penicillium expansum is still responsible of important economical losses during postharvest worldwide. Actual trends are directed to find new rational and environmental friendly control alternatives. In this study the effect of wound healing process in response to P. expansum infection at different maturity stages of fruit and different storage temperatures (20 and 0?C) was evaluated. At 20?C, apples showed less decay incidence and severity when wound healing time increased, and these differences were more important in fruit from immature and commercial harvests compared to the over-matured one. However, at cold storage temperature (0?C), apples wound healing process was not able to prevent P. expansum infection. These results indicate that both, maturity and storage temperatures play an important role in the wound healing process of apples. From these results it could be the basis for strategies involving a period of wound healing at 20?C and subsequent conservation of the fruit to 0?c, in order to improve the defense capabilities of the fruit to infection by P. expansum and reduce the application of synthetic fungicides. Source The text is the abstract of the paper ?Puede el proceso de cicatrizaci?n de las manzanas evitar la podredumbre azul?, by L. Vilanova, I. Vi?as, R. Torres, J. Usall and N. Teixid?, published by the magazine Fruticultura nr. 42, July / August 2015, available HERE ?