Isolation and Identification of the Causal Agents of Red Pepper Wilting Symptoms

In order to investigate the cause of wilting symptoms in red pepper field of Korea, the frequency of occurrence of red peppers showing wilting symptoms was investigated in pepper cultivation fields in Goesan, Chungcheongbuk-do for 5 years from 2010 to 2014. There was a difference in the frequency of wilting symptoms depending on the year of investigation, but the frequency of occurrence increased as the investigation period passed from June and July to August. During this period, Ralstonia solanacearum causing the bacterial wilt was isolated at a rate four times higher than Phytophthora capsica causing the Phytophthora late blight. In wilted peppers collected in Goesan of Chungbuk and Andong of Gyeongbuk in 2013 and 2014, R. solanacearum and P. capsici were isolated from 20.3% and 3.8% of the total fields, respectively. In the year with a high rate of wilting symptoms, the average temperature was high, and the disease occurrence date of the bacterial wilt, estimated with disease forecasting model, was also fast. The inconsistency between the number of days at risk of Phytophthora late blight and the frequency of occurrence of wither symptoms is thought to be due to the generalization of the use of cultivars resistant to the Phytophthora late blight in the pepper field. In our study, the wilting symptoms were caused by the bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum rather than the Phytophthora late blight caused by P. capsica, which is possibly caused by increasing cultivation of pepper varieties resistant to the Phytophthora late blight in the field.