Colletotrichum capsici
| Colletotrichum capsici | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Ascomycota |
| Subphylum: | Pezizomycotina |
| Class: | Sordariomycetes |
| Order: | Glomerellales |
| Family: | Glomerellaceae |
| Genus: | Colletotrichum |
| Species: | C. capsici |
| Binomial name | |
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Colletotrichum capsici (Syd.) E.J. Butler & Bisby, (1931) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Colletotrichum capsici is a plant pathogen which causes leaf blight on Chlorophytum borivilianum, basil, chickpea and pepper as well as dieback in pigeonpea and anthracnose in poinsettia.
Colletotrichum capsici has a broad host range, but prefers peppers, yams and eggplants. On chili peppers, Capsicum annuum L., C. capsici infect the stem, fruit, and leaves of the plant, causing anthracnose, die-back and ripe fruit rot. C. capsici infection tends to infect ripe red fruit, and lead to the development of brown necrotic lesions containing concentric acervuli that will eventually appear black from the setae and sclerotia (Srinivasan, Vijayalakshmi Kothandaraman, Vaikuntavasan, & Rethinasamy, 2014). Additionally, the fruit content of capsaicin and oleoresin is reduced, which results in a decrease of its medicinal potency (Madhavan, Paranidharan, & Velazhahan, 2016).
Dispersal of C. capsici spores is heavily reliant on water splashes onto host plants or wind-driven rain since water is required for spore germination and penetration into host (“Hot Pepper Disease - Anthracnose,” 2010). C. capsici has a necrotrophic lifestyle; therefore, after penetration of the host surface, it secretes many cell wall degrading enzymes into the environment between the host cells (Latunde-Dada, 2001). C. capsici overwinters as conidia or sclerotia, and spend the majority of their life in their conidial stage. Colletotrichum capsici, the asexual stage, consists of hooked shaped conidia produced from acervuli, a subepidermal fruiting body (Than et al., 2008). When grown on plates its colony morphology was observed to have white to grey, a dark green center, and dense, filamentous mycelium (Than et al., 2008).
Since C. capsici need water for their spores to germinate, limiting water can hinder C. capsici infection. By reducing or don’t use overhead irrigation and mulching, you can reduce water exposure in general and back splash on the fruit.
Since other solanaceous species can act as alternative hosts, rotation with non-solanaceous crops is recommended (“Hot Pepper Disease - Anthracnose,” 2010).
By exposing pepper seeds to 52˚C water for 30 minutes, shock with cold water, drying the seed, and adding a fungicide like thiram, the infection of C. capsici can be greatly decreased(“Hot Pepper Disease - Anthracnose,” 2010).
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Wikipedia