The interplay between fungal pathogens and harvest crops is important in determining the extent of food losses following the storage and transport of crops to consumers. The specific factors modulating the activation of colonization are of key importance to determining the initiation of fungal colonization and host losses. It is clear nowadays from the wide number of transcription studies in colonized fruits that pathogenicity in postharvest produce is not only the result of activation of fungal pathogenicity factors but is significantly contributed to fruit maturity and ripening. In this editorial summary of the Special Issue "Interplay between Fungal Pathogens and Harvested Crops and Fruits", we present a short summary of future research directions on the importance of the interplay between fruit and pathogens and nine published papers (one review and eight original research papers), covering a wide range of subjects within the mechanism of pathogenicity by postharvest pathogens, including transcriptome analysis of pathogenesis, pathogenicity factors, new antifungal compounds and food toxin occurrence by pathogens. This summary may lead the reader to understand the key factors modulating pathogenicity in fruits.
Keywords: Botrytis; Colletotrichum; Penicillium; fruit pathogenicity; postharvest losses; postharvest pathogens; toxins.