Effects of electromagnetically signalized media on host-pathogen interaction.

Up to date, limited data are available about electromagnetic phase signaling effects on host-pathogen interactions during the postharvest of horticultural commodities. Inspired by the last striking works on water physics, quantum signaling through phase transfer and its impact on biological and histological structures, we studied the effect of different electromagnetic signals on pome blue mold (Penicillium expansum) pathogenesis. Tags with different electromagnetic-signals (EmS) were used to generate 3 Coherent ElectroDynamic (CED) environments. Artificially wounded 'Coscia' pears, placed onto 3 EmS tags (QF, QA and QR), were employed for the in vivo experiment. Whereas, a set of wounded-fruit placed onto an un-electromagnetic-signalized tag (QN) or kept without tag were used as blank or control, respectively. Inoculation was performed 2 or 24 hrs post-wounding with P. expansum conidia. The same tags placed under Petri dishes containing dot-inoculated PDA served for the in vitro experiment. Both experiments performed at 25°C endured 7 days. The percentage of infected wounds was calculated and the radial growth measured in vitro. Concerning the in vivo experiment, 100% of control and blank fruit inoculated 2 hrs post-wounding was infected after 5 days, while, 97% after 7 days, when inoculation occurred 24 hrs post-wounding. Compared to control and blank, the pathogenesis in fruit placed on the EmS tags resulted inhibited, and when fruit was inoculated 2 hrs post-wounding, the infection degree on QF, QA and QR tags resulted 19, 52 and 64%, respectively. The degree for the same EmS tags was significantly lower when fruit was inoculated 24 hrs post-wounding (9, 32 and 42%, respectively). The in vitro experiment evidenced a notable inhibition of the radial growth by all EmS tags in comparison to control and blank (51 mm), while the QF tag provided the greatest inhibition (12 mm).