Author(s)

Yangying Sun¹, Minli Lin¹, Yuanzhi Chen², Xuan Chen¹, Ye Cai¹, Huabin Luo¹, Ting Zhou^1*

¹Hangzhou Key Laboratory for Safety of Agricultural Products, College of Life and Environmental Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
²Research Centre for Plant RNA Signaling, College of Life and Environmental Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.

Major pathogens causing fruit rots of apple in shelf life in Hangzhou, a city in east China, were identified by rDNA-ITS analysis. Their pathogenicities and stress tolerances were compared as well. Combining with disease symptoms, colonial phenotypes and mycelial microscopic morphology, the fungi were determined as Penicillium expansum, Botrytis cinerea, Botryosphaeria dothidea, Diaporthe phaseolorum, Alternaria alternata and Fusarium acuminatum, respectively. Among them, B. cinerea and B. dothidea showed a higher pathogenicity; B. cinerea and D. phaseolorum were hardly affected by the temperature at a range of 15°C and 25°C; B. cinerea has the highest resistant to Thiabendazole and D. phaseolorum displayed the strongest resistance to Imazalil; and P. expansum was most sensitive to ultraviolet light radiation. The results provide some useful information that helps to combine conventional and alternative control strategies to minimize apple postharvest losses in shelf life.

Apple, rDNA-ITS, Fungal Pathogenicity, Ultraviolet-Light Radiation, Fungicides

Sun, Y. , Lin, M. , Chen, Y. , Chen, X. , Cai, Y. , Luo, H. and Zhou, T. (2019) A Study of the Major Pathogens Causing Fruit Rots of Apple in Shelf Life in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 10, 2070-2085. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2019.1011146.