International Journal of Innovative Horticulture

Severe outbreaks of anthracnose of water melon in different localities of Bangalore rural, Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts of Karnataka occurred during southwest monsoon period (June-September) of 2012 and 2013, causing losses up to 100%. Anthracnose symptoms were recorded on leaves, stems and fruits. Symptoms include circular, black, sunken spots on the surface of fruit, water soaked lesions on the leaf, which later become yellowish irregular spots and stem lesions which girdled the stem and caused the vines to wilt. Twenty three isolates collected from these districts were characterized as Colletotrichum orbiculare based on morphological and multilocus gene phylogeny using partial ITS, GAPDH, CHS-1, CYLH3, ACT, TUB2 and GS genes. Pathogenicity of all the 23 isolates of C. orbiculare was confirmed on Arka Manik variety. Thus, the results of this study can be utilized for devising disease management strategies and for the development of disease resistant varieties for use in commercial production of watermelon in India.