Genetics of host pathogen interaction resistance to anthracnose in chilli

Abstract

Spices are being used as nutrient, color, flavor and medicine for removing body newlineailments. Among the spices, hot pepper or chili (Capsicum annuum, L) is one of the newlinemost important crop belonging to the family, Solanaceae. Production of chilli and newlinecrop development are affected by many biotic and abiotic factors. Disease newlineanthracnose caused by Colletotrichum capsici (Sydow) E. Butler and Bisby is a most newlineimportant biotic stress causing severe pre- and post- harvest damage in chilli crop both newlineat national and global level. Anthracnose is becoming greatest economic constraint in newlinechilli and sweet pepper production, has been observed in three phases viz., seedling newlineblight or damping off, leaf spot and die back, and anthracnose or fruit rot respectively. newlineSymptoms of this important disease is characterized by presence of dark coloured newlinespots or sunken lesions with a slightly raised rim on foliage, stems or fruits, as the newlinedisease advances the spot spreads forming concentric marking and dark black newlinefructifications on the spots representing the fungal acervuli. It severely affects mature newlinefruits and hence the disease is also called ripe fruit rot of chilli. Looking to newlineimportance of control of this disease, the investigation on host pathogen interaction newlinehas been undertaken. newlineThere is scanty information concerning the interactions between host and anthracnose newlinepathogen and the complexes of species involved in chilli anthracnose hence the first newlinechapter deals giving a brief introduction of the host (chilli) and pathogen newline(Colletotrichum) and about the resulting disease (Anthracnose) caused by the newlineinteraction of both host and pathogen. newline