Management, survival strategies, and host range of Colletotrichum acutatum on strawberry

Colletotrichum spp. are broad-range pathogens, meaning that many species can infect a single host and a single species can infect diverse hosts. For example, Colletotrichum acutatum J.H. Simmonds affects a wide range of crops, causing disease symptoms on apple, almond, anemone, citrus, lupin, peach, pecan, strawberry, and others, whereas Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. (Penz. & Sace.) can affect many of the previous hosts as well. Anthracnose is one of the major fungal diseases of strawberry occurring worldwide. In Israel, the disease is caused primarily by the species C acutatum. The pathogen causes irregular leaf spot, bud rot, petiole and stolon necrosis, and black spot on fruit. The pathogen is most destructive when it causes root necrosis and crown rot, which usually kill the plants in nurseries and transplants in the field. To maintain a disease-free crop, nuclear and foundation stock material, as well as field nurseries, must be routinely monitored and tested for presence of the pathogen. Strawberry cultivation using plasticulture as an overhead cover of the crop can significantly control anthracnose disease incidence by reducing inoculum spread and infection, both in nurseries and in production fields. C acutatum from strawberry can survive on several cultivated plant species, such as pepper, eggplant, tomato, bean, and weed species, without causing disease symptoms. This indicated that they may serve as a potential inoculum reservoir for strawberry infection between seasons. Although C acutatum survives in soil under certain conditions, no specific resting structures have been observed indicating that the pathogen does not behave as a typical soilborne fungus.