Abstract

An extensive survey was conducted in major turmeric growing areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The maximum severity of leaf spot recorded was 48.25% and 43.85% during 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively. Twenty isolates of Colletotrichum capsici causing leaf spot of turmeric were evaluated for their phenotypic, pathogenic and virulence characters. The isolates differed in colony colour, shape and size of conidia and were categorized into four groups. The pathogen produced cottony colonies with zigzag to ring or circular pattern of growth. PCR amplification of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA conserved region, result revealed that all the twenty isolates yielded an amplicon size of 590 base pair and the sequence has been registered in NCBI genbank data base.

Keywords: Leaf spot, Turmeric, Colletotrichum capsici, Virulence, Genetic characterization