First report of <i>Colletotrichum nymphaeae</i> causing post‐harvest anthracnose of tomato in the Philippines

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most widely cultivated vegetables globally. In Philippines, tomato ranks as fourth produced vegetable based on volume production. However, production in field and during marketing storage affected by disease. June 2021, anthracnose-infected fruits were collected from a local market Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines (Figure 1). The had sunken lesions covered with conidial masses. Conidia (n = 30) 5.45 (±0.31) × 1.71 (±0.18) µm 2). A single-spore isolate was grown potato dextrose agar medium for seven days at 28 ±1°C 14 hour light 10 dark cycle 3). fungus identified species within Colletotrichum acutatum complex (Damm et al., 2012) morphological characteristics. deposited Fungal Repository Plant Pathology Institute Breeding, College Agriculture Food Science, University (TMAnth-002). To confirm identity, genomic DNA extracted. internal transcribed spacer (ITS) protein-coding genes, chitin synthase (chs-1), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh) ß-tubulin (tub2) amplified using primer sets ITS4/ITS5 (White al. 1990), CHS79F/CHS354R (Carbone & Kohn, 1999), GDF1/GDR1 (Templeton 1992), Bt2aF/Bt2bR (Glass Donaldson, 1995), respectively. sequences Genbank (Accession Nos. ON705715, OP115978, OP115977 OP115976, respectively). phylogenetic tree shows separation two distinct clades, TMAnth-002 clustering very closely C. nymphaeae clade 4). Pathogenicity assays performed detached fruits. Healthy surface sterilised five minutes 10% sodium hypochlorite, washed twice (two each) sterile distilled water air-dried paper. Ten microlitres suspension (107 conidia/ml) seven-day old culture inoculated onto three wounded (pin-pricked) unwounded Distilled used control. Fruits incubated room temperature days. (TMAnth-002) confirmed to be pathogenic both 5). No infection observed control fruit. pathogen recovered fungus-inoculated sites its identity morphologically. has been associated diseases pepper cherry (Chechi 2019) worldwide. gloeosporioides phomoides (syn. coccodes) are only (Tangonan 1999). This first report causative agent post-harvest anthracnose plant country. Hence, studies develop measures caused this would reduce possible losses strengthen industry authors like thank Fe Dela Cueva, Loida Pascual, Rizalina Tiongco, Pamela Quintos technical assistance. research development assistance support provided Department Science Technology- Philippine Council Agriculture, Aquatic Natural Resources Research Development (DOST-PCAARRD).