Each year, roughly 25 percent of the fruits and veggies produced across the globe are lost due to fungal diseases. In fleshy fruits, like tomatoes, this issue is more pronounced, especially as they ripen. Researchers from the Blanco Lab at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with researchers from University of Nottingham, have demonstrated how susceptibility factors that accumulate during the ripening process promote infection by fungal pathogens.