First report of cauliflower anthracnose caused by <i>Colletotrichum gigasporum</i> in India

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) is an important vegetable in India, where it mostly grown the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. India world's second largest producer cauliflower with over 8.84 million tonnes produced annually (Food Agriculture Organization, 2020). In August 2019, sunken, dark brown stem lesions, covered acervuli, were observed on seedlings commercial fields Jalna, Maharashtra, (Figure 1). Approximately 5% affected by disease. Five diseased collected, surface sterilised 1% NaOCl for two minutes followed washings sterile distilled water. Surface-sterilised sunken necrotic lesions stems examined under microscope. Conidial suspensions obtained dispensing 20 µl water onto acervuli. Serial dilutions plated potato dextrose agar (PDA) 50 mg/l streptomycin sulphate to obtain pure cultures. The plates then incubated at 28°C a 16 h light/8 cycle seven days. fungal colonies grey scattered black conidial masses 2). mycelial growth rate PDA was 10 mm per day. Conidia cylindrical, thin walled, hyaline aseptate. conidia measured 21.1 ± 1.0 × 8.3 0.4 µm 3). These morphological characters align description Colletotrichum gigasporum species complex (Liu et al., 2014). For molecular characterisation, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), parts β-tubulin actin (ACT) genes amplified 2014) sequenced. BLAST analysis NCBI database showed 100% identity GAPDH, ACT gene sequences C. (GenBank Accession Nos. KF687829, KF687872 KF687787, respectively). deposited GenBank (MW307265-MW307267) aligned published using MEGA11 (Tamura 2021), phylogenetic UPGMA method 4). Phylogenetic analyses confirmed identification as gigasporum. To confirm pathogenicity isolates, leaves five potted 40-day-old 70% ethanol 30 seconds inoculated suspension (c. 105 conidia/ml) from seven-day-old culture PDA. Leaves additional control. Typical anthracnose symptoms developed gigasporum-inoculated days after inoculation 5) no seen control plants. experiment repeated twice similar results. re-isolated symptomatic seedlings. Colony morphology characteristics identical cultures used inoculation, thereby fulfilling Koch's postulates. has been reported causal agent avocado (Persica americana) Sri Lanka (Hunupolagama 2015) fragrant rosewood (Dalbergia odorifera) China (Wan 2018). not previously India. our knowledge, this also first report caused authors are thankful Mahyco Research Centre, Maharashtra support suggestions.