The study on the pathogenic fungal diversity on chili pepper and its potential influencial factors
Yongzhao Diao: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
<div>As an important vegetable crop, Chili (<em>Capsicum </em>spp.) is planted in the world and its production has always been affected by fungal diseases. Although lots of fungicides have been applied in controlling the diseases, they can still bring 20-50% losses to chili production every year. The lack of understanding of the pathogens affects the choice of suitable fungicides and diseases control. Therefore to achieve better control of fungal diseases in chili peppers, it's essential to reveal the pathogenic fungal diversity. In this study, more than 2000 isolates were collected from diseased chili fruits in 19 countries and further identified by sequencing and morphology observation. The result showed that the main pathogen genera were<em> Alternaria</em>, <em>Colletotrichum</em> and <em>Fusarium</em>. The correlation between fungal diversity and influence factors (geography, chili varieties and capsaicin) were analyzed. The result revealed that chili samples with higher capsaicin have lower fungal diversity, while samples from closer countries harbored more similar fungal communities. Compared to chili varieties, geographic distance and capsaicin played more important role in fungal diversity on chili pepper fruits. Furthermore, We also analyzed the fungal diversity on chili pepper in China between 2015 and 2016. Our result showed that the main diseases were black spot disease, anthracnose disease and rot disease, which are similar to the fungus in other countries in this study, and the main pathogens were <em>Alternaria alternata</em>, <em>Colletotrichum scovillei </em>and<em> C. truncatum</em>. Fungal diversity between southern and northern China showed significant differentiation, and southern regions owned higher fungal diversity than northern regions.</div>
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