During storage, apples are exposed to many stressors, both abiotic and biotic. Mechanical damage represents an optimal site for infection with pathogens, such as P. expansum. Understanding the interaction between the pathogen and the host is crucial in developing new, safe and effective fruit quality control strategies, such as a blue light irradiation. The purpose of this thesis was to study the mechanism of interaction between the idared apples and the P. expansum after irradiation with a blue light, compared to the apples in the dark at proteome level. The apples were mechanically damaged and inoculated with a suspension of mold spores at the injection site. Following the 24-h irradiation with the blue light at a wavelength of 445 nm, proteins were isolated and samples were prepared for protein identification with the LC-MS. The obtained proteomic data were processed with a bioinformatics tool QuickGO and a literature survey. In the apples, irradiation with a blue light mainly affected levels of proteins involved in the response to stress, defense, gene expression, metabolism of amino acids and secondary metabolites, whereas in the mold, the proteins affected were mainly involved in the gene expression and protein biosynthesis, metabolism of carbohydrates and the process of infection. Based on these results, we conclude that in apples the blue light irradiation, as a type of abiotic stress, enhances defense response, which is reflected in an improved resistance to pathogens and other forms of stress fruits face during storage.
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