Abstract
Anthracnose caused by the fungus Colletotrichum orbiculare is one of the most
significant diseases of Cucurbitaceae. In Serbia watermelon fruits with
typical anthracnose lesions were collected during the year of 2015. Affected
fruits showed sunken, dark brown to black lesions with orange conidial
masses produced in black acervuli. In an attempt to identify the causal
organism, small pieces of necrotic tissue were surface sterilized and placed
on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Macroscopic and microscopic morphologicaly
characteristics of three isolates were observed after growth on PDA for 7
days at 25 şC under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Fungal colonies developed
white, grey to black dense aerial mycelium. Conidia were hyaline, aseptate,
straight and cylindrical to clavate, 9-12.5 μm × 4-5.5 μm. Fungal isolates
were also characterized by sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer
(ITS) rDNA region using ITS1F/ITS4 primers and β-tubuline 2 gene using
T1/Bt2b primers. The nucleotide sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS
Acc. No. KT454386, KT454387 and KT454388; β-tubuline 2 gene Acc. No.
KT581236, KT581237 and KT581238). BLAST analysis of ITS and β-tubuline 2
gene sequences showed that our isolates were 100% identical to other C.
orbiculare in NCBI GenBank. Pathogenicity test was conducted on symptomless,
detached watermelon fruits. All tested isolates caused anthracnose lesions
on watermelon fruits after 10 days of incubation. Trichoderma harzianum (DSM
63059) and Gliocladium roseum (DSM 62726) were evaluated in vitro for their
antagonistic potential against C. orbiculare. The results of this study
identify T. harzianum and G. roseum as promising biological control agents
(BCAs) for further testing against anthracnose disease on watermelon
fruits. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development, Grant no. TR 31018 and Grant no. OI 173026]
Citation
ID:
137089
Ref Key:
t.2017zbornikcolletotrichum