Unravelling the defense mechanisms of woodland strawberry fruit and leaves against Botrytis cinerea

Strawberry is one of the world's most popular fruit crops. Grey mold disease, caused by Botrytis cinerea, leads to substantial economic losses in strawberry production worldwide. Currently B. cinerea fruit rot is controlled via fungicides. However, the adverse effects of fungicide use on human health and environment and the development of fungicide-resistant B. cinerea strains urge the development of alternative methods to limit Botrytis fruit rot of strawberry. In this study, we will analyze the transcriptome and metabolome of B. cinerea resistant and susceptible Fragaria vesca cultivars. Since there are strong indications that both structural and biochemical changes during fruit ripening lead to optimal conditions for development of gray mold, we will perform these analyses at different stages during the ripening process of strawberry fruits. As such, this study will shed more light on how the infection evolves during fruit ripening and which plant metabolic, signaling or other cellular processes are modulated and might play a role in the gray mold susceptibility/resistance of the studied cultivars.

Publication year:2022

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