Anthracnose of cucurbits

Abstract

BULLETIN 727, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. production of new lesions is very rapid. Therefore, upon its hosts under cultivation this disease often becomes epiphytotic and may cause serious loss. While primarily a field-crop disease it also occurs as a greenhouse trouble in cucumber culture. Anthracnose was noted as early as 1867, and it now occurs quite commonly throughout Europe and the eastern United States. The disease has received considerable attention from mycologists and plant pathologists, and while diverse names were given to the causal organism agreement seems to have been reached that the several descriptions apply to the same fungus. Among the outstanding disputed questions are that of the correct generic name of the fungus and that of the relation of this fungus to the causal organism of bean anthracnose. The latter question is about settled. that the two species of fungi were distinct. In America the chief interest seems to have centered about the relation of the bean and the cucumber anthracnoses. The disease was noted as early as 1885 on gourds in Philadelphia by Dr. Eckfeldt and on watermelons in Wisconsin by Prof. A. B. Seymour, according to specimens listed by Ellis and Everhart (15, p. 112; 23). Cavara (8, p. 179), at Pavia, Italy, in 1889 found the fungus parasitic upon the stems and first leaves of Lagenaria vulgaris in the botanical garden. He noted that the plants were killed by the disease and that its spread was very rapid. Later, in 1892, he (39) reported the disease on the cotyledons, foliage, stems, and fruits of different cucurbits in the gardens of Pavia. Galloway (20) in 1889 reported anthracnose on melons in New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina. Halsted (23), in New Jersey, reported a serious blight of cucumbers in 1890 and of muskmelons in 1892 due to this disease. Basing his belief upon successful cross inoculation from a watermelon fruit to bean pods and from both of these to a citron fruit, he concluded that the fungus was identical with that of bean anthracnose. Although not recognized as the same disease previously studied by Roumeguere, anthracnose of melons was described by Prillieux and Delacroix (39) in France in 1894. They noted that young plants

Latent Infection in Tropical Fruits Discussed in Relation to the part placed by Species of Gloeosporium and Collectotrichum.

“…2.) Gardner (1918) has noted similar discolouration and swelling of the cell wall in the case of cucurbits infected by C. lagenarium. Both of these reactions have been observed in association with appressoria apparently unaccompanied by infection hyphae.…”

“…Here a somewhat modified hyphal development takes place from which the infection spreads to adjoining cells in the usual manner. This type of infection has been recorded in the case of G. fructigenum on B. Thunbergii (Hasselbring 1906), C. lindemuthianum on the bean (Dey 1919, Leach 1925, and C. lagenarium on cucumber (Gardner 1918). It occurs even when the tissues inoculated are young and immature.…”

“…It is nrobably the channel through this peg which shows as the characteristic clear germ pore when the appressorium is viewed from above. Gardner (1918) with Collet otrichum lagenarium on cucurbits, by Dey (1919Dey ( , 1933 with C. lindemuthianum on the bean and C. gloeosporioides on citrus, and by Chadhuri (1935) also with C. gloeosporioides on citrus. Observations on the initial manner of penetration have been found difficult to make, but when this process has been observed with certainty the infection hypha is seen to take the form of an extremely fine thread which, according to Dey (1919), is not differentiated into wall and cavity.…”

Dissection of race 1 anthracnose resistance in a watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus) biparental mapping population

“…Several accounts of anthracnose as a major disease in cucurbits can be traced back to the late 19th century and early 20th century (Gardner 1918;Parris 1949). The most severe reports of this disease was mainly in south, southeast, northeast, and mid-west regions of the U.S. (Wasilwa et al 1993), with up to 30% yield loss reported in watermelon (Parris 1949) and 60% yield loss reported in other cucurbits (Thompson and Jenkins 1985).…”

The anthracnose complex on soybeans

“…and Hals. (Gardner, 1918), C. phomoides (Pulton, 1948) and C. gloeosporioldes Tc^nz. (Simmonds, 1941).…”