Volatile organic compounds of Bacillus spp. as an emerging antifungal resource play a significant role in fruit postharvest disease control

Abstract

Being rich in nutrients, fruits are indispensable for consumer's healthy dietary life. A vast majority of fruits are susceptible to postharvest fungal infection, which causes potential harm to human health and great economic losses in agriculture. With the increasingly evolving need for sustainable agriculture development and food safety, biological control agents have received considerable attention because they are environment friendly and have significant antifungal effects. Bacillus spp. are used for fruit postharvest disease control through mechanisms such as niche competition, antagonistic secondary metabolites, and induction of systemic resistance in plants. Among these, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have recently been reported to control pathogenic fungi owing to their high volatility, low residue, and broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties. VOCs are secondary metabolites produced by Bacillus spp. This review provides an exhaustive summary of postharvest diseases in common fruits and describes the action mechanisms of Bacillus spp. and their produced VOCs against these diseases, as well as an outlook on application. As an emerging microbial biocontrol resource in fruit postharvest diseases, Bacillus VOCs contribute to the development of new bio-antagonists for controlling postharvest fungal diseases in fruits.