Mushroom alcohol controls gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea in harvested fruit via activating the genes involved in jasmonic acid signaling pathway

Mushroom alcohol (also called 1-octen-3-ol) is a natural volatile product derived mainly from the enzymatic breakdown of linoleic acid in plants and fungi. In this study, the efficacy of mushroom alcohol on control of postharvest gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea was investigated. Mushroom alcohol vapor treatment at 3, 6 or 12 μL L−1 exhibited a marked inhibitory effect on mycelial growth of B. cinerea in vitro and disease severity of gray mold on harvested fruit in a concentration-dependent manner. Likewise, mushroom alcohol efficiently reduced the natural disease incidence of sweet cherry fruit, while no adverse effect was observed on fruit weight loss, soluble solid and titratable acid contents during storage. The mode of action of mushroom alcohol was attributed to its direct inhibition on B. cinereavia mediating the expression of genes related to spore germination and pathogenicity. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of mushroom alcohol on gray mold in sweet cherry fruit was also dependent on activating the expression levels of key genes participating in jasmonic acid signaling pathway. These results demonstrated the beneficial effect of mushroom alcohol in inhibiting B. cinerea, which may be used as an alternative to control gray mold.