First Report of Colletotrichum siamense Causing Leaf Anthracnose on Jackfruit in Thailand.

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) is commonly grown in Thailand. In June 2023, leaf anthracnose on this plant was observed at a field in Chai Prakan District (19°42'24"N, 99°01'59"E), Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, with ~25% disease incidence in a 1000-m2 plantation area. The initial symptom had brown spots with a yellow halo, enlarged, elongated, 0.2 to 2 cm in diameter, irregular, sunken, brown, with a dark brown halo, and leaves withered and dried. Pale yellow conidiomata developed on the lesions in high humidity. Ten symptomatic leaves were used to isolate the fungal causal agents through a single spore isolation method (Tovar-Pedraza et al. 2020). Four fungal isolates (SDBR-CMU492 to SDBR-CMU495) with similar morphology were obtained. Colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA) were 70 to 85 mm in diameter, white to grayish white with cottony mycelia, the reverse pale yellow after incubation at 25°C for 1 week. All isolates produced asexual structures. Setae were brown with 1 to 3 septa, 40 to 100 × 2.2 to 4.0 µm, a cylindrical base, and acuminate tip. Conidiophores were hyaline to pale brown, septate, and branched. Conidiogenous cells were hyaline to pale brown, cylindrical to ampulliform, 7.4 to 27.2 × 2.0 to 4.5 µm. Conidia were one celled, hyaline, smooth walled, cylindrical, ends rounded, guttulate, 11.1 to 15.7 × 3.4 to 6.1 µm. Appressoria were dark brown to black, oval to irregular, 8.8 to 24.9 × 3.6 to 10 µm. Morphologically, all isolates resembled the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides species complex (Weir et al. 2012). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, actin (act), β-tubulin (tub2), calmodulin (CAL), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) genes were amplified using primer pairs ITS5/ITS4, ACT-512F/ACT-783R, T1/T22, CL1C/CL2C, and GDF1/GDR1, respectively (White et al. 1990; Weir et al. 2012). Sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: PP068858, PP068859, PP446789, PP446790; act: PP079636, PP079637, PP460760, PP460761; tub2: PP079638, PP079639, PP460762, PP460763; CAL: PP079634, PP079635, PP460758, PP460759; GAPDH: PP079632, PP079633, PP460756, PP460757). Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated five genes identified all isolates as C. siamense. To pathogenicity test, the mature leaves of a healthy plant were surface disinfested using 0.1% NaClO for 3 min, rinsed three times with sterile water, and wounded. Conidia suspensions (15 µl of 1 × 106 conidia/ml) of each isolate grown on PDA at 25°C for 2 weeks were used to inoculate wounded and unwounded samples by the attached method. Control leaves were mock inoculated with sterile distilled water. Ten replications were conducted for each treatment and repeated twice. Plants were placed in a greenhouse at 25 to 30°C and 80 to 90% relative humidity. After 7 days, all inoculated leaves displayed brown lesions, while control leaves had no symptoms. Colletotrichum siamense was reisolated from inoculated tissues on PDA to complete Koch's postulates. Prior to this study, C. fructicola and C. gloeosporioides caused leaf anthracnose on jackfruit worldwide (Sangchote et al. 2003; Chitambar 2016). Leaf anthracnose on jackfruit caused by C. siamense has been reported from Australia (James et al. 2014) and Bazil (Borges et al. 2023). In Thailand, Bhunjun et al. (2019) reported that C. artocarpicola causes leaf anthracnose in jackfruit. Therefore, this is first report of C. siamense causing leaf anthracnose on jackfruit in Thailand. The finding will inform epidemiological investigations and future approaches to managing this disease.