Summary: No information exists on the ability of Aureobasidium pullulans to infect fruit postharvest. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of occurrence of A. pullulans in cherry packing water systems and if fruit could be infected after exposure to A. pullulans in those systems. Aureobasidium pullulans colonizes stylar tissue of sweet cherries during the growing season, and may remain latent until fruit senesces at which time it may spread to healthy tissue causing a lesion to develop (Dugan and Roberts, 1994). In studies on the effects of MAP liners on extension of shelf life of cherries in 1999 and 2000, A. pullulans was the predominant cause of decay in commercially packed fruit (45% and 50.3% of fruit decayed in 1999 and 2000, respectively) (Kupferman and Sanderson, 2001).
