Ethylene production of Botrytis cinerea in vitro and during in planta infection of tomato fruits

Abstract

We present a new approach to study the pathogen-host interaction by online monitoring of ethylene release using a laser-based photoacoustic detector. The instrument allows detection of ethylene emission in a continuous flow system down to 10 pptv (pptv = parts-per-trillion volume, 1:1012) (Bijnen et al., 1996) and has relatively high time resolution for measuring the dynamics of ethylene production by B. cinerea in vitro and by infected tomatoes. Moreover, it has been proved to be a powerful tool to study the relationship between ethylene released by the fungus in vitro and the enhanced ethylene production in B. cinerea infected tomato with respect to disease development