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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #235287
Title: Quo vadis of biological control of postharvest diseases

Author
item Janisiewicz, Wojciech

Submitted to: International Congress of Plant Pathology Abstracts and Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/29/2009
Publication Date: 12/18/2009
Citation: Janisiewicz, W.J. 2009. Quo vadis of biological control of postharvest diseases. D. Prusky and M.L. Gullino (eds.), Post-harvest Pathology, Plant Pathology in the 21st centruy, Vol 2, pp. 137-148.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Research on the Biological Control of Postharvest Diseases (BCPD) has been conducted for over two decades, and successes, and present and future directions are being discussed. BCPD has been accepted by the fruit and vegetable industries as a stand alone treatment or in combination with other commercial treatments, depending on the fruit or vegetable. BioSave has been on the market since 2006, and its use is expanding to control more postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables. Worldwide efforts in developing BCPD resulted in the registration of more products recently, including three new products in Europe. The number of scientific publications is also increasing steadily. With the extensive commercial application of postharvest biocontrol, their anticipated limitations are understood, and much of the current research is focused on addressing these limitations. They have been addressed by developing antagonist mixtures with superior efficacy,or combining biocontrol with other treatment methods such as GRAS substances, heat treatment, and reduced doses of fungicides. These approaches have been successful for treating decays originating from infected wounds, the main target site for the biocontrol products on the market. Developing control of latent infections is the next greatest challenge for BCPD, because these infections cause many important diseases of temperate, subtropical and tropical fruit, including those caused by Monillinia spp. and Colletotrichum spp. Some programs are already focused in this direction. There is great hope and optimism that at the next ISPP Congress in 2013 in Beijing, we will have reports that the next generation of biocontrol agents are capable of controlling latent infections of fruit.