CHARACTERIZATION OF Colletotrichum spp. STRAINS FROM COMMON BEAN ANTHRACNOSE AND SCAB LESIONS

INTRODUCTION: Common bean anthracnose, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum is one of the most important diseases of this crop. However, another disease that has caused damage to common bean crop is the scab that Colletotrichum truncatum has been reported as causal agent. Strains isolated from anthracnose and scab lesions have been investigated in recent years and strains of Glomerella spp. (teleomorphic form) and Colletotrichum spp. (anamorphic form) have been obtained and identified by morphological, cytological, molecular and pathogenic analyses (Barcelos et al., 2014; Mota et al., 2016). Barcelos et al. (2014) classified Glomerella sp. strains from anthracnose lesions in two distinct groups, group I and II. Group I strains did not cause symptoms in common bean and amplified for the HMGGlo primer, specific for G. cingulata (Barcelos et al., 2011) and did not amplified by the HMGCl primer, specific for C. lindemuthianum (Garcia-Serrano et al., 2008). On the other hand, group II presented mild symptoms 10 days after inoculation and did not amplified for both HMG primers. Recently, Mota et al. (2016) studying Glomerella sp. Group II and other strains from scab lesions, observed that both caused symptoms in the common bean plants similar to those anthracnose, differing only in pods, which presented typical scab symptoms, indicating that a complex of species may be causing the disease. Due to simultaneous occurrence and similarity of scab and anthracnose symptoms in the leaves and stems of the common bean plants, this study aimed to compare the pathogenicity in common bean of strains obtained from anthracnose and scab lesions. Molecular analysis of these strains also was carried out for possible identification of species.