Association of Colletotrichum acutatum in the anthracnose disease of chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) in Sri Lanka
C Mahendranathan,R L C Wijesundera, N K B Adikaram
Abstracts of 7th International Postharvest Symposium 2012 (IPS2012). 25-29 June, 2012. Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 238 pages.
2012
บทคัดย่อ
Colletotrichum acutatum was identified as a causal organism of chili anthracnose, a problematic disease of chilli in Sri Lanka. C. gloeosporioides and C. capsici have previously been reported as causal agents of chili anthracnose. In the present study, Cacutatum was isolated from anthracnose lesions of chili pepper (Capsicum annuum),cvs. Hungarian Yellow (HY) and CA-8 and identified using conidial morphology and sensitivity to fungicides. The colony of the isolate obtained was white to orange in colour, with slight shades of pink and light mouse grey aerial mycelium. Pathogenicity of this pepper isolate of Cacutatum was proved by inoculating wounded and non-wounded peppers of both cultivars and fulfilling Koch’s postulates. The results revealed that the Cacutatum can produce anthracnose lesions on both wounded and non-wounded fruits. Symptom development was slower in the non-wounded fruits. Further, the results of the fungicide assay indicated that the Cacutatum was less sensitive to benomyl (Benlate) while, C. gloeosporioides isolate from pepper was extremely sensitive to this fungicide at all concentrations used. Based on these findings, we propose that, at present, C. acutatum is a major contributing cause of anthracnose of chilli peppers in Sri Lanka.