First Occurrence of Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides on Pitahaya

Abstract

Pitahaya, Hylocereus undatus Britt. & Rose, is a columnar, climbing cactus that produces a commercially important fruit. In December 2004, a new disease was found on the crop in Miami-Dade County, FL. Reddish brown lesions with conspicuous chlorotic haloes developed concentrically on the edges of vine ribs. Lesion centers became white and coalesced to rot much of the vine column, and in severe cases, only the vascular column in the vine center was not diseased. Salmon-colored spores and waxy, subepidermal acervuli, typically with setae and simple, short, erect conidiophores, were observed in lesion centers. Tissue from lesion margins was surface disinfested and plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA; Difco Laboratories, Detroit, MI). Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. was isolated from all samples. Colonies produced abundant conidia that were hyaline, one celled, straight, cylindrical, and averaged 14.7 × 5.0 μm with ranges of 12.5 to 17.5 × 3.8 to 7.5 μm (1). Cultural and morphological characteristics of isolates matched those for C. gloeosporioides except for appressoria and hyphopodia (1,2); pitahaya isolates had a spherical rather than lobed hyphopodia reported for C. gloeosporioides and averaged 10.9 (8.5 to 12.7) × 9.1 (7.1 to 10.3) μm. Internal transcribed spacer sequences for the pitahaya isolates were nearly identical (98% homology) to those for C. gloeosporioides isolates occurring on Euphatorium thymifolia in Thailand (GenBank Accession No. AY266393). Koch's postulates were examined in greenhouse trials at the Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, FL. Treatments consisted of a noninoculated control, four C. gloeosporioides isolates, and an Alternaria sp. All isolates came from symptomatic pitahaya tissue collected in Miami-Dade County. Fungi were grown on PDA for 7 days at 27°C. A sterile dissecting needle was used to gently pinprick the epidermis of the stem and 2-mm-diameter plugs of C. gloeosporioides, an Alternaria sp., or clean PDA were placed over wounds. Plants were placed in a plastic tent in a greenhouse where the temperature was held at 25°C, and free moisture was maintained on plant surfaces with a household humidifier for 48 h following inoculation. Two isolates of C. gloeosporioides were shown, in repeated greenhouse experiments, to cause reddish brown lesions with conspicuous chlorotic haloes that coalesced to rot much of the vine column, and Koch's postulates were completed with the reisolation of isolates that were used to inoculate plants. The age of vine segments had no significant effect on lesion development. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. gloeosporioides as a pathogen of pitahaya. References: (1) J. A. Bailey and M. J. Jeger. Colletotrichum: Biology, Pathology and Control. CAB International, Wallingford, UK, 1992. (2) M. Du et al. Mycologia 97:641, 2005.