First report of Colletotrichum aenigma and C. perseae causing anthracnose disease on Capsicum annuum in Israel

Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp. is an important disease of pepper (Capsicum annuum), affecting fruits and the overall yield worldwide. The disease was recently observed for the first time in Israel in the summer of 2020. In this study, morphology, phylogenetic analysis using glutamine synthase (gs) and the intergenic region between apn2 and Mat1-2 genes (ApMat) sequences, and pathogenicity assays were conducted to characterize and identify the Colletotrichum isolates retrieved from symptomatic pepper fruits. This is the first report of Colletotrichum aenigma and C. perseae as pathogens of pepper anthracnose in Israel.