Cross-pathogenicity of Colletotrichum isolates on tropical fruit species in Brazil

Abstract

Due to their perishable nature, tropical fruits are prone to pre-and post-harvest loss attributed to biotic and abiotic factors. Although the production of tropical fruits such as banana (Musa acuminata), guava (Psidium guajava), mango (Mangifera indica), papaya (Carica papaya), and passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is in the increasing trend, the post-harvest loss remains a challenge for the production of excess tropical fruits worldwide. Severity and cross-pathogenicity of different Colletotrichum species attributed to the reasonable loss of such fruits, hence molecular detection and discrimination of such fungal species are indispensable for post-harvest disease management. In the present study, the rDNA ITS was used for molecular identification of fungal isolates from five tropical fruits at the post-harvesting stage. Most of the identified fungi belong to the genus Colletotrichum. Furthermore, the cross-pathogenicity and disease symptom severity of the isolates across these fruit samples was also investigated. The result showed that most isolates are host-specific, passion fruit being the ideal host for all the discriminated isolates. The symptoms caused by Colletotrichum isolates showed similar patterns as revealed by lesion diameter analysis. The work provided important data on the cross-pathogenicity and disease symptom characteristics of Colletotrichum pathogens known to affect the five tropical fruits investigated.

Keywords:

• Lesion diameter
• passion fruit
• post-harvest diseases
• rDNA ITS
• severity

Acknowledgments

The assistances we got from Ms. Nathalia Lima Medeiros, Mr. Gustavo Lessa Benedet and Ms. Maira Borges Araujo are greatly acknowledged. We are also grateful to Prof. Dr. Marisa Alvares da Silva Velloso Ferreira and Prof. Dr. Renato de Oliveira Resende for allowing us to use their facilities during DNA extraction and PCR.

Author contributions

A.F. Cruz secured the fund, designed the experiments, conducted the experiment, collected the data and run the statistical analysis. L.E. B. Blum secured the fund, designed the experiments, conducted the experiment and collected the data. G.D. Barka interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are deposited in the DNA Data Bank of Japan at http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp, accession numbers LC565415.1 - LC565442.1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Federal District Research Support Foundation (FAPDF).