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Alternative means of control are becoming increasingly relevant to the improvement of safety and the reduction of postharvest losses and waste of fruit and vegetables, especially in view of the application of the EU Greed Deal. A previous study from our research group that focused on the electrolysis process of water and was conducted using NaCl and NaHCO3 as electrolytes proved to efficiently reduce pathogen inoculum in packinghouse washing water. In the present study, we examined the effect of the electrolyzed salt solutions (eNaCl and eNaHCO3) produced in the same experimental conditions previously reported to be used as postharvest treatments during handling and commercialization, and/or at the consumer's site. We tested the electrolyzed solutions, obtained in the presence or absence of the salts, against five relevant fungal pathogens in terms of conidia viability, and on various hosts in terms of rot incidence/severity. Chemical parameters of electrolyzed and non-electrolyzed solutions were also assessed. Although a different susceptibility to treatments was observed among pathogens, electrolyzed sodium chloride (eNaCl) was the most efficient treatment for preventing spore germination, as well as for minimizing fruit rot. However, a consistent control of fungal viability and consequent rot was also achieved using electrolyzed tap water (eW). The eNaHCO3, although less efficient on fungal viability, provided a significant effect against fruit rot. The investigated electrolyzed solutions seem promising for reducing the waste of fresh fruit and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2023, a leaf spot-like disease was discovered on mandarin plants in an orchard in Calabria, Southern Italy. The affected leaves showed dark brown lesions with a yellow halo. Three isolates of the fungus Pseudopithomyces mori were obtained from different plants and identified through morphological and genetic analysis. The pathogenicity of the fungus was confirmed by inoculating healthy citrus leaves and observing the development of lesions. This is the first report of P. mori causing leaf spot on mandarin leaves in Italy. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) is a cereal crop widely grown in the Mediterranean regions; the amber grain is mainly used for the production of pasta, couscous and typical breads. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection technologies and high-throughput mutation induction represent a new challenge in wheat breeding to identify allelic variation in large populations. The TILLING strategy makes use of traditional chemical mutagenesis followed by screening for single base mismatches to identify novel mutant loci. Although TILLING has been combined to several sensitive pre-screening methods for SNP analysis, most rely on expensive equipment. Recently, a new low cost and time saving DHPLC protocol has been used in molecular human diagnostic to detect unknown mutations. Results: In this work, we developed a new durum wheat TILLING population (cv. Marco Aurelio) using 0.70-0.85 % ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS). To investigate the efficiency of the mutagenic treatments, a pilot screening was carried out on 1,140 mutant lines focusing on two target genes (Lycopene epsilon-cyclase, ε-LCY, and Lycopene beta-cyclase, β-LCY) involved in carotenoid metabolism in wheat grains. We simplify the heteroduplex detection by two low cost methods: the enzymatic cleavage (CelI)/agarose gel technique and the denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). The CelI/agarose gel approach allowed us to identify 31 mutations, whereas the DHPLC procedure detected a total of 46 mutations for both genes. All detected mutations were confirmed by direct sequencing. The estimated overall mutation frequency for the pilot assay by the DHPLC methodology resulted to be of 1/77 kb, representing a high probability to detect interesting mutations in the target genes. Conclusion: We demonstrated the applicability and efficiency of a new strategy for the detection of induced variability. We produced and characterized a new durum wheat TILLING population useful for a better understanding of key gene functions. The availability of this tool together with TILLING technique will expand the polymorphisms in candidate genes of agronomically important traits in wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]