Isolation, identification, molecular characterisation and proving pathogenicity of Colletotrichum musae causing anthracnose of banana

Abstract

Banana (Musa sp.) is an important fruit crop in tropical and sub-tropical regions. The crop is well known as "Kalpataru" (Plant of Heaven), Apple of Paradise and it’s known as Adams Fig due to its socioeconomic importance and variety of uses. The crop is prone to various diseases. Banana anthracnose, caused by a fungus Colletotrichum musae (Berk. & Curtis) is the most vital pre and post-harvest disease, which is known to reduce marketable fruit yield of 30-40%. In this context, the disease effected banana fruit was collected from KRCCH, Arabhavi, was used for fungus isolation and identified the fungus based on cultural, morphological and sequence analysis of two genomic regions [internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)] and further confirmed its pathogenic nature by inoculating the conidial suspension of 4×106 spores/ml on healthy fruits.