Full Length Research Paper
Abstract
Coffee berry disease (CBD) caused by Colletotrichum kahawae, is the main disease that affects arabica coffee production in Africa. Isolates of C. kahawae were collected from different altitude in the West Region of Cameroon and characterised for cultural and morphological variations. The results showed a significant variation among C. kahawae isolates related to their morpho-cultural features with respect to altitude. All isolates had cottony mycelium appearance. Four types of colony colours were identified: Grey, whitish, greyish and pinkish. Mycelia growth rate of isolates varied significantly from 4.32 to 7.11 mm/day. Dominant shape of conidia was cylindrical acute and round ends of CBDBHa1, CBDBHa2 and CBDBHa3 isolates from the high altitude, followed by cylindrical round at both ends of isolates CBDBMa1 and CBDBMa2 from medium altitude. Fusiform and reniform conidia shapes were observed with isolates CBDNBa1 and CBDNBa2 from low altitude. Conidia size and sporulation capacity of C. kahawae isolates increased with altitude. Conidia size ranged from 3.82 to 13.46 µm in length and from 1.13 to 1.69 µm in width; while sporulation capacity varied from 169.06 ×104 to 438.36 ×104 conidia/ml. This study highlights some variations in cultural and morphological characteristics of C. kahawae with respect to altitude.
Key words: Altitude, coffee berry disease, Colletotrichum kahawae, morpho-cultural characteristics, Coffea arabica.
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