Cultural and morphological variations of Colletotrichum spp associated with anthracnose of various fruits in Cameroon

The anthracnose of fruits due to Colletotrichum spp. is one of the principal fungal diseases which affects the production and marketing of fruits in Cameroon. Isolates of Colletotrichum were collected from various fruits and characterised for cultural and morphological variations. The results show that Colletotrichum colonies varied in the appearance of their culture ranging from fibrous, compact and cottony colonies. The colour of colonies ranged between whitish to greyish, pinkish and greyish green. AVIS1, BAIS2, MAIS1, PAIS1 and PLIS1 had an intermediate growth varying between 13.02 to 13.61 mm/day, whitish to greyish mycelium and fusiform conidia of size ranging between 19.98 x 4.17 and 21.29 x 5.14 µm. BAIS2 had the fastest growth (17.19 mm/day) with a pinkish fibrous mycelium and cylindrical or spindle-shaped conidia of 25.62 x 6.04 µm in size and a sporulation rate of 8.69 x 104. These results highlight some variations in morphocultural characteristics of Colletotrichum species, however molecular analyses are still going on for adequate differentiation among those isolatesfrom different fruits.