Abstract
Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum is one of the most severe diseases that can afflict Camellia sinensis. However, research on the diversity and geographical distribution of Colletotrichum in China remain limited. In this study, 106 Colletotrichum isolates were collected from diseased leaves of Ca. sinensis cultivated in the 15 main tea production provinces in China. Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis coupled with morphological identification showed that the collected isolates belonged to 11 species, including 6 known species (C. camelliae, C. cliviae, C. fioriniae, C. fructicola, C. karstii, and C. siamense), 3 new record species (C. aenigma, C. endophytica, and C. truncatum), 1 novel species (C. wuxiense), and 1 indistinguishable strain, herein described as Colletotrichum sp. Of these species, C. camelliae and C. fructicola were the dominant species causing anthracnose in Ca. sinensis. In addition, our study provided further evidence that phylogenetic analysis using a combination of ApMat and GS sequences can be used to effectively resolve the taxonomic relationships within the C. gloeosporioides species complex. Finally, pathogenicity tests suggested that C. camelliae, C. aenigma, and C. endophytica are more invasive than other species after the inoculation of the leaves of Ca. sinensis.
Highlights
Colletotrichum Corda is one of the most important fungal genera containing plant pathogens in the world, causing disease in a wide range of hosts[4,5]
After isolating and identifying Colletotrichum species, we summarized the Colletotrichum species associated with Ca. sinensis and their geographical distributions in China
The combined aligned data matrix (ITS, ACT, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), CAL, chitin synthase 1 (CHS-1), TUB2, and glutamine synthetase (GS)) contained 152 sequences including the outgroup (C. boninense CBS 123755) and 3,879 characters including gaps. These species were determined from 81 isolates from Ca. sinensis plants in our study
Summary
Colletotrichum Corda is one of the most important fungal genera containing plant pathogens in the world, causing disease in a wide range of hosts[4,5]. The use of morphology coupled with multi-gene molecular phylogeny has developed as an effective strategy for identification and has improved the understanding of Colletotrichum taxonomy[4,5,8,9,10]. Several studies identifying Colletotrichum as the causal agent of anthracnose in Ca. sinensis have shown that there is remarkable species diversity in Colletotrichum present as pathogens or endophytes[3,25,26,27,28]. Liu et al.[2] recently isolated Colletotrichum from healthy and diseased tissues of Camellia spp. from 7 provinces in China and from 3 other countries Their investigations included only partial areas of tea plant cultivation in China. We believe these results can provide phytopathologists and plant breeders with a reference for the prevention and control of anthracnose disease
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
