water treated tomato fruit (Fig. 5), which may correlate with the
lower infection incidence. Similar results were obtained byBenitez
et al. (2006), who reported that hot water dipping treatment at
55C for 5 min induced resistance in mango fruit at mature green
stage againstColletotrichum gloeosporioides(Penz) Penz & Sac. by
enhancing activities of PAL andb-1,3-glucanase. Moreover,Pavoncello et al. (2001)observed that hot water brushing treatment at
62C for 20 s promoted the accumulation of CHI andb-1,3-glucanase proteins of grapefruit, resulting in an increase in resistance
againstP. digitatum.
In conclusion, the combination of HWT and C. guilliermondiior
P. membranaefaciensis more effective to control postharvest diseases of tomato fruit than the single treatments. It suggests that
the combined strategy of biological and physical control may partially substitute the utilization of synthetic fungicides in tomato
fruit. However, future research on development of the technology
at large scale is needed.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30671473) and by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No.
69714G1001).