Physiological Changes Occurring in Picked Climacteric Fruit Infected with Different Pathogenic Fungi

The main purpose of this work was to study the host‐parasite relationship between attacking fungi and the infected climacteric fruit. The study dealt mainly with physiological changes such as respiration and ethylene evolution pattern occurring in fruit inoculated with different fungi after picking. These physiological changes in infected fruit were found to be basically similar to those of uninfected fruit, but they were substantially accelerated. A direct correlation was obtained between the rate of fungal development in fruit (incubation period and rot development) and the extent of acceleration of respiration and ethylene evolution; in general, a faster development of the fungus was related to greater acceleration of ethylene and respiration rate of the infected fruit. Fungal infection was found to have an effect on fruits similar to that of exogenic ethylene treatment on sound fruit.