Anthracnose of banana ( Gloeosporium musarum Cke. & Massee) with special reference to latent infection in storage

Abstract

Most of the published works on banana anthracnose caused by Gloeosporium musarum Cke. & Massee deal with the infection of harvested and stored fruit. Detailed information regarding the nature of latent infections is inadequate and is the special subject of the present investigation. Cavendish bananas from the Canary Islands and the Gros Michel banana from Jamaica and the Cameroons were available for investigations. By comparing three representative isolations of G. musarum from three different localities, it has been shown that comparable strains may be obtained from different localities. By germination experiments in the expressed juice of green and yellow banana skins it has been shown that there is an inhibitory effect of the green skin juice on the germination of conidia. This inhibitory effect may be due to the presence of tannin, which disappears to some extent as the fruit ripens. By artificially inoculating green and yellow bananas it has been shown that G. musarum penetrates the cuticle of the host by mechanical means, and in green bananas remains in an inactive condition in the subcuticular region until the fruit ripens, when the fungus resumes activity to produce typical anthracnose lesions. Histological changes caused by the infection are described and discussed.