Abstract
Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum musae is the most important postharvest disease of banana fruit. The present study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of C. musae isolates to hot water treatment in vitro. The effect of hot water treatment (HWT) in vitro was determined by placing conidial suspensions and plugs of agar with mycelia of 12 single spore isolates of C. musae in hot water bath at 45, 50 and 55°C for 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 min. Percent inhibition of conidial germination and colony growth increased with increased temperature and time combinations. HWT at 55°C for 5 min had an equivalent inhibition of conidial germination and reduction of mycelial growth to that of HWT at 50°C for 17 min in the 12 C. musae isolates. Remarkable variability in thermo-tolerance was found among 12 isolates of C. musae and isolate HC2 and HC3 were found to be the most sensitive, while DL1 and DL2 were comparatively heat tolerant isolates. Key words: Banana anthracnose, Colletotrichum musae, hot water treatment, sensitive, tolerant.
Highlights
Anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum musae is one of the most common fungal diseases in banana producing countries (Ranasinghe et al, 2005).Anthracnose is a latent infection where fungal spores infect immature banana in the field but symptoms occur as peel blemishes, as black or brown sunken spots of various sizes on fruit that may bear masses of salmoncolored acervuli with their associated conidia on the fruit peel after ripening (Maqbool, 2010)
Many countries have demanded a fresh product without treatment with any chemicals, fungicides applied after harvest (Maqbool et al, 2010)
Hot water treatment at 50°C for 8 to 15 min for isolate HC1, HC2, HC3, DC3 and HL2, 11 to 17 min for isolate DC2 and DL3, 14 min for isolate DC1, and 17 min for isolate DL2 exhibited the highest inhibition of conidial germination which was on par with the treatments involving 55°C for 5 to 17 min
Summary
Anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum musae is one of the most common fungal diseases in banana producing countries (Ranasinghe et al, 2005).Anthracnose is a latent infection where fungal spores infect immature banana in the field but symptoms occur as peel blemishes, as black or brown sunken spots of various sizes on fruit that may bear masses of salmoncolored acervuli with their associated conidia on the fruit peel after ripening (Maqbool, 2010). Anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum musae is one of the most common fungal diseases in banana producing countries (Ranasinghe et al, 2005). Chemical methods are widely used for the control of this postharvest disease in banana (De Costa and Kalpage, 2006). Many countries have demanded a fresh product without treatment with any chemicals, fungicides applied after harvest (Maqbool et al, 2010). Hot water treatment is an effective non-chemical method for management of postharvest banana anthracnose (De Costa and Erabadupitiya, 2005; Li et al., 2006). A major practical difficulty in using hot water treatment is to operate at precise temperatures and periods, since the thermal thresholds of pathogens and physiological actions are close to temperatures that can damage the fruits (Arauz, 2000). There is a lack of information about the in vitro effects of hot water
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