NBU Journal of Plant Sciences Copyright © 2015, University of North Bengal. All RIghts Reserved Vol. 9, No. 1 March 2015 p. 33-39 ISSN No. 09746927 Bacterial Spot (Xanthomonas cucurbitae) of cucurbits: A review Kumud Jarial, Rajendar Singh Jarial and Satish Kumar Gupta* College of Horticulture and Forestry, Dr YS Parmar UHF, Neri, Hamirpur (HP) - 177001 *Directorate of Extension Education, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (HP)-173230 In India, the disease was first reported on cucumber from Bihar in 1989 by Sinha (Sinha, 1989). After that there had been no reports of the disease on any of the cucurbits from India until Jarial et al (2011) reported the severe outcome of the disease on bottle gourd in Himachal Pradesh. In addition, the pathogen has been reported to be pathogenic on cucumber, pumpkin and summer squash (Jarial et al, 2011). The Cucurbitaceae also known as cucurbits, are a plant family, sometimes called the ground family, consists of around a hundred genera most of which are edible (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, 2009). The plants in this family are grown around the tropics and in temperate areas for their edible fruits. These were among the earliest cultivated plants both in the Old and New Worlds. The Cucurbitaceae family ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food (Lira and Montes Hernández, 1994). Cucumber, pumpkin, different types of gourds, melons, squash and zucchini are among the important edible plants of the family. The cultivation of these cucurbits is hampered by the attack of many pathogens and insects, out of which Xanthomonas cucurbitae (Bryan) Dowson (Syn.: Xanthomonas campestris pv. causing bacterial spot is emerging as an important pathogen leading to huge crop losses especially to pumpkin, winter squash and bottle gourd (Jarial et al., 2011 and Babadoost, 2012). Losses The disease has been reported to cause significant losses According to Larazev (2009) yield losses mayY reach more than 20% in highly susceptible cultivars, and the disease severity sometimes reaches 50-60% at fruit storage in different cucurbits. Babadoost (2012) has reported yield losses varying between 3 to 90 per cent in case of pumpkin fields due to this disease in Ilinois. However, the yield losses due to bacterial spot may reach up to 50 per cent in different Cucurbits (Anonymous, 2012). In case of bottle gourd, yield losses between 10 to 70 per cent have been reported in Himachal Pradesh, India by Jarial et al (2011). Losses up to 90 per cent have been reported in case of pumpkin by Salamanca (2014). From Canada, up to 60 per cent fruit loss has been reported due to bacterial spot in pumpkin (Trueman et al., 2014). in different cucurbits. cucurbitae) Occurrence This disease was first reported as bacterial leaf spot on Hubbard squash in New York in 1926 by Bryan (Babadoost, 2012). Since then, the disease has been reported to ocCur on various Cucurbits (Gorlenka, 1979, VIlasov, 2005) like squash (Robbs et al, 1972; Alippi, 1989, Kushina et al, 1994), cucumber (Vincent Sealy, 1978; Marigoni et al., 1988; Sinha, 1989), pumpkin (Pruvost et al, 2008; Lamichhane et al., 2010; Babadoost and Ravan'ou, 2012; Salamanca, 2014; Trueman et al, 2014), watermelon (Pruvost et al, 2009; Dutta et al, 2013) and bottle gourd (Jarial et al, 2011) from different countries of world. Symptoms The symptoms of the disease have been described in details on different crops by various workers. In case of bottle gourd, the symptoms appear on almost all plant parts (Jarial et al, 2011). Initially, the symptoms develop on leaves of any age group as small marginal chlorotic spots, which increase in size towards the centre of the leaf. Later, the necrotic areas develop in *Corresponding Author: Email: skguptampp@rediffmail.com 33