Cultural and Morphological Characterization of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides the Causal Organism of Mango Anthracnose

Anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is one of the most important post harvest disease causing yield losses in mango. Ten isolates of C. gloeosporioides were isolated from different varieties of mango viz., Alphonso, Neelam, Raspuri, Dasheri, Beneshan and Totapuri collected from markets of Bengaluru. The colony growth characters of C. gloeosporioides isolates were studied on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media. The highest mean colony diameter of 90.00mm was recorded in C. gloeosporioides isolates and 85.33mm of colony diameter was recorded in C.accutatum isolates respectively. C. gloeosporioides isolates produced greyish to dark grey colonies whereas C.accutatum isolates produced white colonies. All the colonies showed raised fluffy to flat mycelial growth with smooth and regular to irregular margins. Orange to black pigmentation was recorded on the bottom of the colonies as substrate colour. Salmon or orange colour conidial mass was seen on the culture media followed by acervulli production in the form of black dots. The length of conidia ranged from 11.4516.87ìm with width of 4.23–6.30ìm.