Aggressiveness profiling of the coffee pathogen Colletotrichum kahawae

Colletotrichum kahawae is a specialized plant pathogen of arabica coffee in Africa, able to infect green berries. The economic impact of this pathogen means there is an urgent need to better understand its pathogenic lifestyle, in particular its aggressiveness. In this study, several quantitative traits including disease severity, latent period and incubation period were measured to concomitantly assess the aggressiveness of 26 C. kahawae isolates. The results show that the area under disease progression curve is the most informative variable, particularly when joined together with the index disease intensity 10 days after inoculation and latency period, while the incubation period is not a reliable trait to distinguish aggressiveness levels in C. kahawae. This study also confirms the suitability of hypocotyls and detached green berries to perform C. kahawae aggressiveness assays, revealing that hypocotyls are a more reproducible testing material. Based on isolate profiles, three aggressiveness classes were established (high, moderate and low). A cytological analysis of representative isolates from each class showed that aggressiveness can be related to the development of post-penetration stages, rather than conidia germination and appressoria differentiation. This study provides, for the first time, the best metrics to evaluate C. kahawae aggressiveness, characterizing the profile of a broad range of isolates, and defining a set of parameters that can be used to classify new isolates. Furthermore, the collected information will contribute to the improvement of coffee breeding programmes, through the selection of tester isolates for prescreening of resistant coffee materials, and offers the opportunity to engage on future genotype–phenotype studies.