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The postharvest rot of blueberry fruits caused by Botrytis cinerea led to economic losses. Here, we found that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by Metschnikowia Pulcherrima T-2 reduced fruit rot. Nevertheless, the mechanism of VOCs induced fruit resistance remains unclear. The total flavonoids content in blueberry fruits were significantly higher by T-2 VOCs treatment. Metabolomic analysis unraveled that the contents of quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin were significantly higher with T-2 VOCs treatment. The quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin also inhibited growth of B. cinerea in vitro. According to transcriptome analysis, the expression level of VcNAC83 was significantly highly increased after T-2 VOCs treatment. Furthermore, VcNAC83 was highly correlated with rot rate and total flavonoids content, and RT-qPCR also verified that VcNAC83 was significantly up-regulated. Transient overexpression of VcNAC83 in fruits enhanced the resistance to B. cinerea, and reduced lesion diameter and rot rate. The total flavonoids content, expression levels of flavonoid-related genes such as PAL, F3H, F3'H, DFR and F3'5'H and contents of quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin were also increased in the overexpressed blueberry fruits. These results support a critical role for T-2 VOCs in blueberry immune response to B. cinerea, and provide a new method of postharvest storage.
Li et al. (Sat,) studied this question.