Impact of harvesting time and fruit firmness on the tolerance to fungal storage diseases in an apple germplasm collection

Blue mold and bitter rot, caused by Penicillium expansum and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, respectively, are two of the most devastating diseases during and after storage of apple. The present project was conducted to evaluate the level of tolerance to these diseases in apple germplasm, and investigate possible associations with other fruit characteristics such as harvest date, firmness at harvest, softening (loss of firmness during storage) and sun-exposure. Apples were harvested at a maturation stage suitable for storage, inoculated with spore suspensions of P. expansum (127 cultivars) or C. gloeosporioides (70 cultivars), and stored for 6 or 12 weeks for early- and late-maturing cultivars, respectively. Fruit firmness was measured after harvest and after storage, and the difference was used as a measure of fruit softening. Average lesion diameter varied significantly among both early- and late-maturing cultivars. The amount of damage caused by the two diseases was significantly correlated across cultivars. Regression analyses indicated that lesion diameter was positively affected by fruit softening and negatively affected by harvest date and firmness at harvest. Impact of the independent variables was quantified with partial least squares discriminant analysis; approximately 40% of the genetic variation could be explained by these variables with harvest date being the most important. The effect of sun-exposure was analyzed on six bi-colored cultivars but the results were not conclusive. Cultivars that showed relatively small symptoms in spite of being early-maturing and/or only medium firm, may have other traits that are beneficial for storage and could therefore be especially useful in breeding programs.