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A new approach to quantify anthracnose symptoms in inoculated Capsicum spp. fruits

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Abstract

Anthracnose caused by a complex of Colletotrichum species is a major disease that reduces pepper yields in tropical and subtropical countries, causing economic losses from planting to post-harvest. Identifying resistant genotypes has challenged plant breeders and plant pathologists. Inoculation and disease assessment techniques play an important role in finding anthracnose resistance in pepper fruits, especially when considering different Capsicum species. There is no specific scale to assess the anthracnose severity in pepper fruits when using spot inoculation methods. In this paper, we propose a new rating scale to estimate the severity of fruit rot, caused by Colletotrichum scovillei, in four Capsicum species. Unripe and ripe fruits from 11 genotypes were inoculated with 10µL of conidial suspension [1 × 106 conidia/mL] by a microinjector. Five raters daily assessed anthracnose severity in 79 fruits, using three different methods, namely lesion area by image analysis; lesion area by caliper measure and two rate scale. Incubation (IP) and latent periods (LP) were also estimated using both scales. On the 9th day after inoculation (dai), the severity was estimated by seven raters using the two scales and measurement of lesion diameters. We determined the conidia concentration in the lesion area at 10 dai. Data were analyzed by Spearman correlation and Fleiss’ Kappa (IP, LP, and scores on the 9th dai), along with d simple linear regression and Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient (AUDPCs). Nine severity levels were defined on the new proposed scale (S) based on the presence/absence of acervuli/hyphae and the lesion diameter. The S scale resulted in superior values for agreement/accuracy (ρc ≥ 0.80), and precision (r ≥ 0.77) when compared with other methods, being thus more reliable in defining the LP of the fungus.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank EKnoblauch, DCruz, YSouza, JCorrea, COliveira, PBianchi, and FOliveira for volunteering to participate in the study as raters.

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001. The first author received research fellowship from the UENF Programa de Pós-doutorado Recém-Doutor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Melhoramento Genético Vegetal, Universidade Estadual Do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, 28013-602, Brazil

    Maria do Socorro Bezerra de Araújo, Cláudia Pombo Sudré, Antônio André da Silva Alencar, Ingrid Gaspar da Costa Geronimo & Rosana Rodrigues

  2. Pós-graduação Ciência para Desenvolvimento, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, 2780-156, Oeiras, Portugal

    Gaspar Afonso da Graça

Authors
  1. Maria do Socorro Bezerra de Araújo
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  2. Cláudia Pombo Sudré
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  3. Gaspar Afonso da Graça
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  4. Antônio André da Silva Alencar
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  5. Ingrid Gaspar da Costa Geronimo
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  6. Rosana Rodrigues
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Contributions

MSBA and CPS contributed to the study conception and design. MSBA, CPS, GAG, AASA, and IGCG helped in carrying out the experiment. MSBA processed the experimental data, performed the analysis, drafted the manuscript, and designed figures and tables. CPS, AASA, and RR critically reviewed the manuscript. RR supervised the project. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rosana Rodrigues.

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Araújo, M.d.S.B., Sudré, C.P., Graça, G.A. et al. A new approach to quantify anthracnose symptoms in inoculated Capsicum spp. fruits. Trop. plant pathol. 47, 386–401 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40858-022-00499-9

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