Penicillium expansum is a necrotrophic pathogen, which actively kills host cells and obtains nutrients from dead cells to achieve infection. However, few reports have elucidated the differential levels of carbon and nitrogen sources over increasing distances of the leading edge in fungal colonized fruit tissues during colonization. Our results showed that the highest consumption of sucrose and fructose, as well as the accumulation of glucose, were found in the decayed region of P. expansum-colonized 'Delicious' apple fruit compared with the healthy region at the leading edge and the healthy region 6 mm away from the leading edge. As nitrogen sources, the contents of methionine, glutamate, leucine, valine, isoleucine and serine were the lowest in the decayed region compared with the healthy regions during colonization. In addition, the titratable acidity, oxalic acid, citric acid, succinic acid and malic acid showed the highest accumulation in the decayed region compared with the healthy regions. P. expansum colonization induced the accumulation of saturated fatty acids in the decayed region, while the level of unsaturated fatty acids was the lowest. These changes were not observed in the healthy regions. These results indicated that P. expansum kills cells in advance of its colonization in order to obtain the nutrients of the apple tissue from the distal leading tissue of the colonized apple. It is understood that more carbon and nitrogen sources are required for fungal colonization, and a stronger defense response against colonization occurred in the fruit, causing the transit of nutrients from the distal tissue to the infected sites.
Keywords: Penicillium expansum; apple; carbon source; fungal infection; nitrogen source.