Evaluation of the effects of UV radiation and storage temperature on the gene expression during storage of strawberry fruits

Abstract

In the world, large portions of fresh produces such as fruits are known to be lost during storage due to invasion by pathogenic microbes. In this study, we focused on the use of UV radiation at different storage temperature for promoting the storage quality of strawberry fruits. After the freshly harvested strawberry fruits were exposed to irradiation with UV-C, fruits were stored at different temperatures. During storage, the expression levels of some pathogenesis-related genes and secondary metabolism-related genes were examined as the indicators of resistance to pathogens. The expression level of some genes (ie. genes for glucanase and PAL) during low temperature storage was significantly increased by the UV radiation. This suggests that combination of UV radiation and low temperature could be effective method for protecting the strawberry fruits from pathogen attacks during storage.