Characterization of Pseudocercospora musae isolates infecting banana and their fungicide sensitivity

The Pseudocercospora musae induced yellow sigatoka greatly reduces the yield in banana in India. Four causative species has been reported to cause different sigatoka and differentiating them is little challenging. This study confirmed the presence of disease in banana growing regions of Karnataka during roving survey. In efforts to elucidate the causative species of pathogen, 50 isolates collected from diseased samples were found pathogenic on grand naine and exhibited dense, initially white later to light brown then pale grey colour colony characters. The ITS rDNA sequencing and phylogeny revealed more than 96 per cent homology with P. musae reference strains in NCBI Gen Bank confirming identity of all isolates as P. musae. Further, isolates had high degree of sensitivity to Propicanazole, Hexaconazole and Thiophenate methyl.. KEYWORDS :Banana, fungicide sensitivity, ITS, Pseudocercospora musae and yellow sigatoka