Heat Treatment in Combination with Antagonistic Yeast Reduces Diseases and Elicits the Active Defense Responses in Harvested Cherry Tomato Fruit

This study investigated the effects of heat treatment (hot air at 38 degrees C)) and antagonistic yeast (Pichia guilliermondii) alone or in combination against postharvest diseases (Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria alternata and Rhizopus nigricans) on cherry tomato fruit, and evaluated the elicitation of active defense responses. Results showed that heat treatment at 38 degrees C for 24 h in combination with P. guilliermondii at 1 X 10(8) CFU mL(-1) was the most effective approach to reduce various infections on cherry tomato fruit's wounds. Moreover, the combined heat and P. guilliermondii treatment stimulated a rapid increase of H2O2 and higher lignin deposition in cherry tomato fruit showing that the oxidative burst and biological synthesis of lignin might play important roles in the fruit's active defense responses. In addition, the reduction of the fruit's susceptibility to pathogens by the combined treatment was positively correlated with higher activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and beta-1,3-glucanase in cherry tomato fruits, both of which are associated with plant defense responses.