Variability in Colletotrichum gloeosporioides from Indian Bay Island Ecosystem

摘要

Colletotrichum sp. is one of the most important plant pathogen worldwide, causing anthracnose disease in a wide range of hosts including cereals, legumes, vegetables, perennial crops and fruits (1) and producing symptoms such as leaf tip die-back, stem die-back, foliar blight, leaf spot, leaf lesions and boll rot of various plants (3). It is a cosmopolitan species known to occur on numerous hosts, exhibits considerable variation in morphology (2) and pathogenicity (7). Andaman and Nicobar Islands represents one of the most fragile tropical Island ecosystems in the South East Asia. The climate is humid tropical with mean annual rainfall of about 3180 mm, average mean temperature varies from 23 to 30°C with 80-90 per cent relative humidity. Among thediseases, anthracnose is most common and observed throughout the Bay Islands in almost all crops/plants. The present study was aimed to determine the cultural, morphological, pathogenic variability and to determine the cross-pathogenicity of 5 isolatesof C. gloeosporioides of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.