SHORT COMMUNICATION Colletotrichum species associated with mango (Mangifera indica L.) stem-end rot Lim Li 1 & Masratul Hawa Mohd 1 & Latiffah Zakaria 1 Received: 14 January 2019 /Accepted: 14 October 2019 # Società Italiana di Patologia Vegetale (S.I.Pa.V.) 2019 Abstract A symptom of stem-end rot was observed on fruits of mango cv. Falan in a hypermarket in Penang Island, Malaysia. Colletotrichum asianum and C. siamense were isolated from the diseased fruits. Identification of fungi was based on morphology and on ITS, GADPH and ACT gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. A pathogenicity test was conducted on three cultivars of mango (Chok Anan, Falan and Waterlily), on wounded and unwounded fruits. Both Colletotrichum species caused rotting symptoms on wounded and unwounded fruits of all cultivars. Both species were re-isolated from the diseased fruits, thereby fulfilling Koch’ s postulates. This is the first report of C. asianum and C. siamense associated with mango stem-end rot in Malaysia. Keywords Colletotrichum asianum . Colletotrichum siamense . Stem-end rot . ITS . GADPH . ACT Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is considered to be one of the five most important tropical fruits. In 2017, global production of mangoes was 50.6 million tonnes (FAOSTAT 2017). Although mango is planted locally, Malaysia imports substantial amounts of mango fruits from India and Thailand. Mango fruits are susceptible to pathogenic fungi. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. (teleomorph Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Spauld. & H. Schrenk) and Colletotrichum acutatum J.H. Simmonds (teleomorph Glomerella acutata Guerber & J.C. Correll) cause anthracnose (Jayasinghe and Fernando 2009; Fitzell and Peak 1984; Freeman et al. 1998). With the taxonomic revision of the genus Colletotrichum, many new species have been identified and introduced in the C. gloesporioides and C. acutatum species complexes. Thus, several Colletotrichum spp. including C. asianum Prihast., L. Cai & K.D. Hyde and C. siamense Prihast., L. Cai & K.D. have been reported to cause anthracnose of mango fruits in several countries (Weir et al. 2012; Sharma et al. 2015; Pardo-De la Hoz et al. 2016; Mo et al. 2018). Symptoms of anthracnose start with appear- ance of black or brown spots, and can occur on various parts of mango plants; the leaves, twigs, panicles, petioles, and fruits. On leaves, the anthracnose lesion begins as small, an- gular, brown to black spot that can enlarge to form large dead areas. The symptoms on panicles also begin with small black or dark brown spots, which can enlarge, merge, and kill the flowers before fruits are produced (Nelson 2008). Twigs, pet- ioles, stems and fruits can develop black and more extensive lesions. Ripe fruits develop sunken, notable, dark brown to black decay spots before or after picking. The fruit spots often merge and can eventually develop deep in the fruit flesh, resulting in extensive fruit rotting. Linear necrotic regions associated with superficial cracking of the epidermis (“alliga- tor skin”) or wide, deep cracks in the epidermis may also appear (Nelson 2008). Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Pat.) Griffon & Maubl., Botryosphaeria dothidea (Moug.) Ces. & De Not, Dothiorella dominicana Petr. & Cif., Neoscytalidium dimidiatum (Penz.) Crous & Slippers, and Phomopsis mangiferae S. Ahmad) cause stem-end rot of mango (Johnson et al. 1990; Slippers et al. 2005; Ko et al. 2009; Sakalidis et al. 2011). In general, stem-end rot of affected mango fruit appears as dark brown and water-soaked areas which may extend internally as rot into the flesh. * Latiffah Zakaria Lfah@usm.my Lim Li limli110376ll@gmail.com Masratul Hawa Mohd masratulhawa@usm.my 1 School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia Journal of Plant Pathology https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-019-00439-8