PATHOGENICITY AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF COLLETOTRICHUM GLOEOSPORIOIDES PENZ. (PENZ. & SACC.) CAUSING MANGO ANTHRACNOSE

Abstract

Mango anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is one of the major constraints affecting mango production and post-harvest quality worldwide. The present study was undertaken to isolate, identify, and confirm the pathogenicity of C. gloeosporioides associated with mango anthracnose through morphological and molecular approaches. The pathogen was isolated from mango fruits exhibiting typical anthracnose symptoms using the tissue isolation technique and purified through hyphal tip isolation. Morphological characterization revealed fast growing colonies with white to grey pigmentation, abundant aerial mycelium, and characteristic hyaline, aseptate, cylindrical to oblong conidia. Pathogenicity of the isolate was confirmed by inoculating healthy mango fruits using different inoculation methods. Among the methods tested, dipping inoculation showed maximum disease development, recording a lesion size of 71.67 mm at 9 days after inoculation with 100% disease incidence, followed by pedicel spray inoculation. No symptoms were observed in water-treated control fruits, confirming the pathogenic nature of the isolate. Molecular characterization based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region amplification using ITS1 and ITS4 primers produced an amplicon of approximately 500–700 bp. BLASTn analysis of the obtained sequence showed high similarity with previously reported C. gloeosporioides sequences, and the sequence was deposited in the NCBI GenBank database with accession number KT282667. The combined morphological, pathogenicity, and ITS-based molecular analyses confirmed the identity of the mango anthracnose pathogen as C. gloeosporioides. The findings provide reliable identification of the pathogen and serve as a basis for further studies on disease epidemiology and management strategies.