Epidemiology and Pathology of Strawberry Anthracnose: A North American Perspective

Three Colletotrichum species--Colletotrichum acutatum J.H. Simmonds (teleomorph Glomerella acutata J.C. Guerber & J.C. Correll), Colletotrichum fragariae A.N. Brooks, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. in Penz. [teleomorph Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Spauld. & H. Schrenk]--are major pathogens of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). Strawberry anthracnose crown rot has been a destructive disease in commercial strawberry fields in the southeastern United States since the 1930s. The causal fungus, C. fragariae, may infect all aboveground plant parts; however, the disease is most severe when the fungus infects the crown, causing crown rot, wilt, and death. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was responsible for an epidemic of anthracnose crown rot in strawberry nurseries in Arkansas and North Carolina in the late 1970s. The anthracnose fruit rot pathogen, C. acutatum, was first reported in 1986 on strawberry in the United States. Since the 1980s, increased losses due to anthracnose fruit and crown rots in the United States may be related to changes in cultivars and to widespread use of annual plasticulture production rather than the matted-row production system. Anthracnose investigations in the United States have concentrated on its epidemiology and differences among the three causal Colletotrichum spp. in their cultural, morphological, and molecular characteristics; their infection processes; and their pathogenicity. Results from these studies have resulted in a better understanding of the diseases and have led to better disease control. Strawberries grown in soils with high nitrogen levels are more susceptible to anthracnose than are those grown in soils with lower nitrogen levels or those amended with calcium nitrate. Anthracnose is spread more rapidly in fields that have overhead irrigation and plastic mulch than in fields where drip irrigation and straw mulch are used. Fungicide efficacy has been determined in in-vitro, greenhouse, and field studies, and pathogen resistance to some fungicides has been detected. Anthracnose-resistant cultivars are a major objective of most strawberry breeding programs in the southern United States.