RT Journal Article T1 Differences in behavior during early nectarine infection among main Monilinia spp. causing brown rot A1 Astacio, Juan Diego A1 Rodríguez Pires, Silvia A1 Melgarejo, Paloma A1 De Cal, Antonieta A1 Espeso, Eduardo Antonio AB Brown rot is a disease that affects stone and pome fruit crops worldwide. It is caused by fungal members of the genus Monilinia, mainly M. fructicola, M. laxa, and M. fructigena. This study presents evidence that, despite having a very similar battery of cell wall-degrading enzymes, the three species behave differently during the early stages of infection, suggesting differences at the regulatory level, which could also explain the differences in host preference among the three species. We have shown that M. fructicola infection is accelerated by red light, and the first symptoms appear much earlier than in darkness or in the other two species. The overexpression of genes encoding for CAZymes, such as pme3, pme2, pg1, cel1, pnl1, and pnl2, as well as the necrosis factor nep2, can be associated with the etiology of Monilinia spp. In addition, we found that nep2 in M. fructigena lacks binding sites in its promoter sequence for the white-collar complex, which is the major transcription factor responsible for regulating photoreception processes in fungi. Finally, we found that AlphaFold models of the NEP1-like proteins present on the three Monilinia species predict proteins with a very high degree of similarity. PB American Phytopathological Society SN 0031-949X SN 1943-7684 YR 2025 FD 2025-03 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119763 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119763 LA eng NO Astacio JD, Rodríguez-Pires S, Melgarejo P, De Cal A, Espeso EA. Differences in Behavior During Early Nectarine Infection Among Main Monilinia spp. Causing Brown Rot. Phytopathology® 2025;115:269–80. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-05-24-0159-R. NO Funding:Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Grant/Award Number: PRE2018-085721.Ministry of Universities and the European Union-NextGenerationEU, Grant/Award Number: “Margarita Salas” postdoctoral program.Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Grant/Award Number PID2020-115702RB-C21/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 ; Grant/Award Number: PID2021-124278OB-I00.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Grant/Award Number: AGL2017-84389-C2-2-R. NO European Commission NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España) DS Docta Complutense RD 25 ene 2026