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Patulin is a mycotoxin produced by several species of Penicillium sp., Aspergillus sp., and Byssochlamys sp. on apples and pears. Most studies have been focused on Penicillium expansum, a common postharvest pathogen, but little is known about the characteristics of Penicillium paneum. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of temperature, pH, and relative humidity (RH) on the growth of P. paneum OM1, which was isolated from pears, and its patulin production. The fungal strain showed the highest growth rate at 25 °C and pH 4.5 on pear puree agar medium (PPAM) under 97 % RH, while it produced the highest amount of patulin at 20 °C and pH 4.5 on PPAM under 97 % RH. Moreover, RT-qPCR analysis of relative expression levels of 5 patulin biosynthetic genes (patA, patE, patK, patL, and patN) in P. paneum OM1 exhibited that the expression of the 4 patulin biosynthetic genes except patL was up-regulated in YES medium (patulin conducive), while it was not in PDB medium (patulin non-conducive). Our data demonstrated that the 3 major environmental parameters had significant impact on the growth of P. paneum OM1 and its patulin production. These results could be exploited to prevent patulin contamination by P. paneum OM1 during pear storage., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Ae-Son Om reports financial support was provided by Rural Development Administration. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Patulin (PAT) is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by certain species of Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. on apples and pears. In this study, we investigated the effects of ascorbic acid and the combination of ascorbic acid and ferrous iron on degradation of PAT in 100% pure pear juice and apple juice using high-performance liquid chromatography UV detector (HPLC-UVD). The addition of 2 different levels of ascorbic acid (143 or 286 μg/mL) into pear juice or apple juice containing 0.08 or 0.4 μg/mL of PAT showed 87.7-100% and 67.3-68.7% of PAT degradation rates, respectively, after 24 h incubation at 25 °C. Moreover, the addition of both ascorbic acid (143 or 286 μg/mL) and ferrous iron (0.033 or 0.11 μmol/mL) into pear juice or apple juice containing the same level of PAT exhibited higher PAT degradation rates (100 and 75-94%, respectively) than the addition of only ascorbic acid after 24 h incubation at 25 °C. Our data demonstrated that ascorbic acid plus ferrous iron as well as ascorbic acid were highly effective on degradation of PAT in pear juice and apple juice and that addition of both ascorbic acid and ferrous iron produced higher PAT degradation rates than addition of only ascorbic acid.