Sensitivity to fungicides in isolates of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and C. acutatum species complexes and efficacy against anthracnose diseases

Abstract

Colletotrichum species cause diseases on many plants and are among the ‘top 10’ fungal plant pathogens. Species of the C. gloeosporioides and C. acutatum complexes are particularly important because they infect temperate fruit crops, but their control relies largely on chemical fungicides. In this study, differences in intrinsic fungicide sensitivity were determined in vitro using isolates of the C. gloeosporioides sp. complex (C. fructicola, C. siamense, and C. tropicale) and the C. acutatum sp. complex (C. fioriniae and C. nymphaeae), which had never been exposed to fungicides. Mycelial growth of all isolates was sensitive to the QoI azoxystrobin, the SDHI benzovindiflupyr, and the new DMI fungicide mefentrifluconazole. The isolates of C. nymphaeae were highly sensitive to the phenylpyrrole fungicide fludioxonil. The isolates of C. gloeosporioides sp. complex were sensitive to the bis-guanidine fungicide iminoctadine-albesilate, whereas those of C. acutatum sp. complex were inherently insensitive. These results are valuable when sensitivity of field populations is monitored in resistance management. Although SDHI fungicides are largely not effective against diseases caused by Colletotrichum species, benzovindiflupyr controlled anthracnose disease of various crops such as kidney bean, garland chrysanthemum, and strawberry, caused by C. lindemuthianum, C. chrysanthemi, and C. siamense, respectively, demonstrating this fungicide to be unique among SDHIs and having a broad control spectrum against anthracnose. To help understanding the reason for differential activity of benzovindiflupyr and boscalid, sdhB gene sequences were analyzed but those of C. lindemuthianum, C. chrysanthemi, and C. scovillei revealed no known mutations reported to be responsible for SDHI resistance in other fungi, indicating that other mechanism(s) than target-site modification may be involved in differential sensitivity to benzovindiflupyr and boscalid, found in Colletotrichum species.