Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Collectotrichum gloeosporioides Causing Anthracnose Disease on Carambola in India

Abstract

Filamentous fungi of the genus Colletotrichum and its teleomorph Glomerella are considered major plant pathogens worldwide. The fungi cause disease symptoms that are generally known as anthracnose in a wide range of vegetables, fruits and other crops. The fruit anthracnose of different crops was relatively well studied in India but the information about anthracnose on Carambola is still very scarce and it causes extensive yield losses at both the pre- and post-harvest stages during warm and rainy seasons. The anthracnose infected samples of Carambola was collected from Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Chettalli, Karnataka state of India. The fungus was isolated from the lesions of infected leaves and fruits. The pathogenicity of fungus was confirmed by re-inoculating on the same host. Further the fungus was identified based on pathogenic, morphological and amplification of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region by PCR using ITS specific primers. The amplified PCR product were cloned and sequenced. The sequence analysis of Carambola isolate showed maximum nucleotide identity of 100% with Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc infecting tobacco crop.