BACKGROUND: Strawberries are a delicate, high nutritional value fruit with an extremely short shelf life and high susceptibility to tissue infection, mainly by Botrytis cinerea. Control of the disease requires an extensive amount of fungicide that is applied in varying complexes because the pathogen easily develops resistance against the active compounds. Planting tolerant cultivars seems to be a promising alternative for fruit growers, but there are currently no cultivars available combining tolerance to B. cinerea with attractive horticultural traits. OBJECTIVE: In this study, four well-defined strawberry cultivars (‘Romina’, ‘Cristina’, ‘Silvia’, and ‘Sibilla’) were selected and tested under treatment with Botrytis cinerea to determine the tolerance of each cultivar and its association with fruit quality. METHODS: Fruits were harvested and then stored for four days after inoculation (treatment) or not (control) with spores of B. cinerea; then, every day the level of decay was detected, and fruits were frozen for successive evaluation of fruit quality. RESULTS: The ‘Silvia’ cultivar is the one that demonstrated a higher level of tolerance to Botrytis infection during the treatment, and the ‘Romina’ cultivar was the cultivar most susceptible to the treatment. The results of the study also highlighted qualitative changes in all strawberry cultivars infected with Botrytis cinerea, by a decrease in the soluble solids content and an increase of acids. Generally, in all cultivars, phenolic acids, and vitamin C decreased in both control and infected but there was a strong decrease in infected fruit compared to control. Anthocyanin content increased in control fruits but strongly decreased in infected. CONCLUSION: As a preliminary outcome, a positive correlation was obtained between fruit nutritional quality and tolerance to decay, as a high amount of nutritional compound content provides lower susceptibility of fruits to Botrytis cinerea. To confirm this result more studies need to be done.

中文翻译：

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不同草莓品种对灰葡萄孢的耐受性及其与果实品质的关系研究

背景：草莓是一种娇嫩、营养价值高的水果，但保质期极短，且易受灰霉病菌（Botrytis cinerea）等组织感染。控制该疾病需要以不同的复合物形式施用大量的杀菌剂，因为病原体很容易对活性化合物产生抗性。对于果农来说，种植耐受性品种似乎是一个有前途的替代品，但目前还没有将灰霉病耐受性与有吸引力的园艺性状结合起来的品种。目的：在这项研究中，选择了四个明确的草莓品种（“Romina”、“Cristina”、“Silvia”和“Sibilla”）并在灰葡萄孢处理下进行测试，以确定每个品种的耐受性及其与水果品质。方法：在接种（处理）或不接种（对照）灰霉病孢子后收获果实，然后储存四天；然后，每天检测腐烂程度，并冷冻水果以连续评价水果品质。结果：“Silvia”品种是在治疗期间表现出较高水平的对灰霉病感染耐受性的品种，而“Romina”品种是对治疗最敏感的品种。研究结果还强调了所有感染灰葡萄孢的草莓品种都发生了质的变化，表现为可溶性固形物含量下降和酸含量增加。一般来说，在所有品种中，对照和感染果实中的酚酸和维生素 C 均有所下降，但与对照相比，感染果实中的酚酸和维生素 C 下降幅度较大。对照果实中的花青素含量增加，但受感染果实中的花青素含量大幅下降。结论：初步结果表明，水果营养品质与耐腐烂性之间存在正相关关系，因为高含量的营养化合物可以降低水果对灰葡萄孢的敏感性。为了证实这一结果，需要进行更多的研究。