Occurrence and infective potential of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides isolates associated to Citrus limon var Eureka

A collection of 37 fungi associated to Italian lemon plants with disease symptoms, was obtained. Ten genera including Aspergillus, Alternaria, Nigrospora, Lasiodiplodia, Dothideomycetes, Pleurostoma, Setosphaeria, Penicillium, Fusarium and Colletotrichum were identified by using ITS1–5.8S–ITS2, D1/D2 26S and COX1 loci. The last three genera were abundant on the damaged fruits, being Colletotrichum the more abundant (32.4 %). CaInt2 and CgInt primers support the identity of these isolates as C. gloeosporioides. Variability, inferred by rep-PCR and multilocus sequence analysis shows genetic differences among the C. gloeosporioides isolates. Infective profile evaluated in Colletotrichum isolates shows different leave infection percentages (26 to 60 %). SEM analysis showed mycelium, spores and appressoria on the leaves of selected Colletotrichum isolates. Specifically, the AL-05 and AL-13 isolates showed a high chitin deacetylase activity (CDA) peaking at 1.2 U/mg protein in AL-13. This is the first report on C. gloeosporioides infecting Italian lemon leaves in Mexico.