Colletotrichum fragariae Is a Pathogen on Hosts Other Than Strawberry

Evidence that Colletotrichum fragariae causes disease on hosts other than strawberry is limited. In the fall of 2006, fungal isolates from silver date palm with leaf spot symptoms and from cyclamen with leaf spot and stem rot symptoms were identified as C. fragariae. After confirming the pathogenicity of the isolates on their host of origin, a representative isolate from each host was compared to C. fragariae and to C. gloeosporioides/Glomerella cingulata isolates from strawberry. Date palm and cyclamen isolates bore conidia on setae, and conidia were tapered and in the size range of C. fragariae reference isolates. Sequence data from the combined internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions 1 and 2 and the gene for the 5.8 ribosomal RNA from the cyclamen and date palm isolates matched the sequence for C. fragariae reference isolates. Based on these characteristics, it was concluded that the C. fragariae species designation was correct for both isolates. However, the date palm isolate was a weak pathogen on strawberry compared with other isolates and had a distinct AT-rich DNA banding pattern. The ability of the cyclamen isolate to cause crown rot on strawberry was comparable with the strawberry reference isolates, and the AT-rich DNA banding pattern of the cyclamen isolate was identical to the C. fragariae isolates from strawberry. The results indicate that C. fragariae is a pathogen on hosts other than strawberry and that there is more diversity among C. fragariae isolates than previously reported.