Occurrence and Characterization of <i>Penicillium</i> Species Isolated from Post-Harvest Apples in Lebanon

The apple is one of the most important fruit tree crops in the Mediterranean region. Lebanon, in particular, is among the top apple producer countries in the Middle East; however, recently, several types of damage, particularly rot symptoms, have been detected on fruits in cold storage. This study aims to identify the causal agents of apple decay in Lebanese post-harvest facilities and characterize a set of 39 representative strains of the toxigenic fungus Penicillium. The results demonstrated that blue mould was the most frequent fungal disease associated with apples showing symptoms of decay after 3–4 months of storage at 0 °C, with an average frequency of 76.5% and 80.6% on cv. Red and cv. Golden Delicious apples, respectively. The morphological identification and phylogenetic analysis of benA gene showed that most Penicillium strains (87.2%) belong to P. expansum species whereas the remaining strains (12.8%) belong to P. solitum. Furthermore, 67.7% of P. expansum strains produced patulin when grown on apple puree for 14 days at 25 °C with values ranging from 10.7 mg kg−1 to 125.9 mg kg−1, whereas all P. solitum did not produce the mycotoxin. This study highlights the presence of Penicillium spp. and their related mycotoxin risk during apple storage and calls for the implementation of proper measures to decrease the risk of mycotoxin contamination of apple fruit products