Phenotypic, molecular and pathogenic characterization of Colletotrichum scovillei infecting Capsicum species in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

Anthracnose is a disease caused by Colletotrichum spp., one of the world’s most damaging sweet and chili pepper pathogens, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, anthracnose is one of the main obstacles for pepper crops. However, to date no research has focused on the identification and characterization of the pathogen, which is fundamental to understand the scope of the disease in the state. Thus, the correct identification of the fungal species and pathogenicity studies can provide important support for disease management and control, apart from identifying possible resistance sources for exploitation in peppers breeding programs. In this study, 11 Colletotrichum isolates were collected from peppers with typical symptoms in the Rio de Janeiro state. These isolates were characterized based on morpho-cultural characteristics and sequencing data from five regions (ITS, ACT, CAL, β-TUB and GAPDH), and the genetic variability was estimated by AFLP markers. Simultaneously, microscopy images of the colonization by the fungal species on unripe Capsicum annuum fruits were taken. Pathogenicity was tested and resistance sources were sought by means of infection of ripe and unripe fruits of 50 Capsicum baccatum accessions. The resulting data showed that all isolates belong to Colletotrichum scovillei specie. About the pathogenicity of Capsicum baccatum, differentiated, stage-specific responses, with higher resistance of ripe fruits were recorded. In addition, four possible sources of Colletotrichum scovillei resistance were detected among the tested accessions. The combination of these data can contribute to future studies on the interaction of Colletotrichum scovillei-Capsicum spp., a research line that is still unexploited in the main areas of this anthracnose fungus.

Injury and not the pathogen is the primary cause of corm rot in Crocus sativus (saffron)

“…Colletotrichum also has been documented as pathogens by many reports ( Zakaria, 2021 ) such as sugarcane ( Franco et al., 2022 ), capsicum ( Giacomin et al., 2021 ), and banana ( Sudarma et al., 2021 ). Moreover, Colletotrichum species have been reported as endophytes, having various bioactive metabolites ( Santra and Banerjee, 2022 ).…”

Re-identification of Colletotrichum acutatum Species Complex in Korea and Their Host Plants

“…C. scovillei has a narrow host range and was commonly reported as one of the highly aggressive diseases of Capsicum spp. in many countries such as Brazil ( Giacomin et al, 2021 ), Korea ( Oo et al, 2017 ) and Asia ( de Silva et al, 2019 ). C. scovillei also infected Clausena lansium ( Lin et al, 2020 ), Mangifera indica ( Qin et al, 2019 ), Musa sp.…”

The state-of-the-art in the genetics of resistance to the colletotrichum species complex in Capsicum

“…According to some regional surveys in Brazil, C. scovillei is the the predominant species in Capsicum spp., followed by C. siamense, C. brevisporum and C. truncatum (ALMEIDA 2015;SILVA et al 2017c;GIACOMIN et al 2021). The fact that at least 12 species (Figure 1B) of Colletotrichum are pathogenic to Capsicum spp.…”