Journal of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences

Molecular Identification of Fungal Species Associated With Mango Anthracnose in Southwest Nigeria
Onyeani C. Awa, O. Oguntade

Abstract
Colletotrichum species have been implicated as causal agents of fruit anthracnose in mango in Nigeria but due to the difficulties in distinguishing fungal isolates by their morphological characteristics using the traditional taxonomic systems, a quick and an unambiguous molecular test based on the amplification of fragments of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) region to distinguish Colletotrichum isolates from other pathogenic fungi was conducted in the speciation of 7 fungal species frequently found associated with anthracnose fruit rot in mango in Southwest Nigeria. The analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) fragment showed sufficient variability to clearly classify the 7 fungal species isolated form symptomatic mango fruits into Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Fusarium verticillioides and Lasiodiplodia theobromae. Chromatogram produced from their rDNA data confirmed the identities of the fungal isolates. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was identified to be the fungus responsible for anthracnose in mango in Southwest Nigeria.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v4n2a11