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STORY LEAD:
Ensuring an Apple a Day

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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Rosalie Marion Bliss, (301) 504-4318, rbliss@ars.usda.gov
August 8, 2003
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To help maintain bountiful supplies of the fresh apples consumers
enjoy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking to patent a
biocontrol yeast that makes life miserable for the apple nemesis known
as blue mold.

This mold is the most significant source of postharvest decay of stored
apples in the United States. Caused by the fungus Penicillium expansum,
blue mold leaves a telltale sign of soft, watery, light-brown rot.

The patent application is based on work by Agricultural Research
Service plant pathologist Wojciech Janisiewicz at the ARS Innovative
Fruit Production, Improvement and Protection Laboratory at
Kearneysville, W.Va. He isolated a yeast, called Metschnikowia
pulcherrima, that occurs naturally on the fruits, buds and floral parts
of certain apple trees.

M. pulcherrima is one of several yeast species that serve as a
biological control against postharvest decay of pome fruits. These
friendly yeasts work by consuming the nutrients on fruit and vegetable
skins that allow rot-causing fungi to thrive.

Janisiewicz showed that M. pulcherrima is highly effective at consuming
nutrients that otherwise would support blue mold growth on apples.
Moreover, Janisiewicz found that the yeast is effective at cold-storage
temperatures, a feature of major importance to produce-warehouse
operators.

Fungicides have been a major treatment for fruits and vegetables to
prevent postharvest diseases. But yeasts that control postharvest
diseases have emerged as an effective alternative to fungicides.

The Kearneysville laboratory is now looking for a company with which to
license or partner to mass-produce M. pulcherrima for commercial use.

Read more about this research in the August issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/aug03/mold0803.htm

ARS is USDA's chief scientific research agency.
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