Isolation, identification and cross infectivity of Colletotrichum spp.

Abstract

In the current study, the isolation of pathogenic fungi was carried out from the diseased tissues of Chilli, Soybean, and Mungbean plants. The samples were carefully collected from symptomatic regions exhibiting characteristic disease symptoms such as necrosis, lesions, or wilted tissue. To ensure the purity of the isolates, re-isolation was performed using Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) plates, which served as a suitable nutrient medium for fungal growth. The re-isolated cultures were then subjected to detailed identification based on both cultural and morphological characteristics observed under a microscope. Three different species i.e., Colletotrichum capsici, Colletotrichum truncatum, and Colletotrichum lindemuthianum were identified. The Mycelial growth of Colletotrichum capsici was ashy grey to black color, C. truncatum was Light grey to white color, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum was light brown to whitish yellow color. The C. truncatum and C. lindemuthianum shows the symptoms on both Soyabean and green gram where as the rest only seen in chilli causing typical anthracnose symptoms such as dark lesions, fruit rot, and leaf blight. The manifestation of symptoms varied depending on the host and the specific Colletotrichum species involved.