Identification of Colletotrichum Species Associated with Anthracnose Disease of Strawberry in Sichuan Province, China

Abstract

Strawberry anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum species, is a major fungal disease threatening strawberry industry in Sichuan Province of southwestern China. However, research on identification of Colletotrichum species associated with strawberry anthracnose in Sichuan remains uncovered. In this study, 73 representative Colletotrichum strains were isolated from diseased leaves, stolons, petioles and crowns of 11 major strawberry planting localities in Sichuan Province. Based on morphological characteristics and multi-loci phylogenetic analysis, the Colletotrichum strains were identified as three distinct species: Colletotrichum fructicola (53 strains, 72.60%), C. siamense (17 strains, 23.29%) and C. gloeosporioides sensu stricto (3 stains, 4.11%). Among them, C. fructicola was the most ubiquitous and dominant species, whereas, C. gloeosporioides sensu stricto only restricted in Chongzhou. Importantly, our pathogenicity tests showed that C. fructicola and C. siamense can infect both leaves and stolons, while C. gloeosporioides sensu stricto was only pathogenic to leaves. Interestingly, although the sexual stage of C. siamense was not observed in this study, it still exhibited the strongest virulence to strawberry as compared to C. gloeosporioides sensu stricto and C. fructicola. Overall, this is the first study to characterize Colletotrichum species causing strawberry anthracnose and evaluate their pathogenicity in Sichuan Province of southwestern China, which will provide a better strategy on accurate diagnosis and management on anthracnose disease on strawberry.

Diversity and Resistance to Thiophanate-Methyl of Colletotrichum spp. in Strawberry Nursery and the Development of Rapid Detection Using LAMP Method

“…The morphological characteristics of Colletotrichum species are associated with factors of the cultivation environment, such as wetness, temperature, light, and growth media. In addition, species within the Colletotrichum complex have not been distinguished from one another because of their similar morphological characteristics [6,9]. Therefore, we jointly used multilocus phylogenetic and morphological characteristic analyses to identify the pathogen of anthracnose [10,39,42].…”

“…Anthracnose is a destructive disease in the strawberry field that can affect the health of the plant at any stage, particularly during the seedling and transplanting stage [4]. For example, the incidence of anthracnose at the seedling stage reaches 50 to 80% under disease-favorable conditions of wetness and temperature, resulting in severe seedling death and yield loss [5,6].…”

Colletotrichum Species Causing Cyclocarya paliurus Anthracnose in Southern China

“…), Citrus spp., mango (Mangifera indica), peach (Prunus persica), pear (Pyrus spp. ), strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) and tea (Camellia sinensis), possibly due to its parasitic and endophytic lifestyle [18,40,[44][45][46][47][48][49].…”

Pathogenicity and molecular phylogenetic analysis reveal Colletotrichum siamense as causal agent of leaf fall disease in rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) in southern Thailand

“…It can infect many plants and cause many diseases (Weir et al, 2012), such as crown rot in strawberries (Luo et al, 2021), as well as anthracnose disease and leaf disease in many plants, including Citrus spp., Piper nigrum, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Artocarpus sericicarpus, Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora, Eriobotrya japonica, Ficus carica, Mentha sp., Rosmarinus officinalis, Theobroma cacao, Jasminum sambac, Pongamia pinnata, Bauhinia forficata subsp. pruinose and Macadamia integrifolia, (Wikee et al, 2011;James et al, 2014;Larran et al, 2015;Dwarka et al, 2016;Qiu et al, 2020;Jian et al, 2021;Perez-Mora et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021). Casas et al (2021a, b) reported that C. siamense can be endophytic and is used as a biological control in anthracnose disease.…”