Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems,

Vol. 22, No. 2 pp 193-194(2016)

RESEARCH NOTE

Prevalence of black leaf spot of papaya caused by Asperisporium caricae in

Tamil Nadu, India

G. THIRIBHUVANAMALA1*, D. ALICE1, S. PARTHASARATHY1 , G. KARTHIKEYAN1 ,

M. KRISHNA REDDY2 and K. SOORIANATHA SUNDARAM3
1
Department of Plant Pathology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore - 641003, India
2
Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore - 560089, India
3
Department of Fruit Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore - 641003, India
E-mail: ragumala2000@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Papaya crop is affected both by several fungal and viral diseases that cause a great threat to papaya cultivation
worldwide. In Tamil Nadu, recently severe incidence of black leaf spot caused by Asperisporium caricae was observed in
commercially grown papaya varieties. The disease has been documented with pathogen characters and discussed in this
paper with a view to give due importance to under take steps to mitigate the crop loss.
Keywords: Black spot, Carica papaya, fungal disease, Tamil Nadu.

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is one of the common
fruits grown in India and is commercially cultivated in
about 133,000 ha with production of about 5,639,000
metric tonnes/year (IHD, 2015). However, this crop
suffers a great loss due incidence of Papaya ringspot
virus and collar rot/root rot caused by Phytopthora
palmivora in majority of the areas where ever the crop
is cultivated. Recently, in Tamil Nadu during October
2014 to March 2015, black leaf spot symptoms caused
by Asperisporium caricae were observed on matured
leaves in papaya varieties viz., Co2, Co8, Red Lady and
Sinta at various districts viz., Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur,
Theni and Krishnagiri of Tamil Nadu state. The
widespread occurrence of this disease was observed in
China, Philippines, Srilanka and Taiwan (EPPO, 2005).
In India, though this disease was observed as early during
1977 in the papaya variety Coorg Honey dew at Chettali,
Karnataka and in Palani hills in Variety Co 1 during cooler
months (January to March) (Ullasa et al., 1978), and in
Chittor of Andhra Pradesh (Reddi Kumar et al., 2015),
the disease did not emerge in a devastating manner
thereafter.
Recently, the black leaf spot seems to be a
widespread disease in major papaya growing regions of
Tamil Nadu in almost all the commercially grown varieties
and the disease incidence ranged with PDI range of 10.0
to 23.8. Plants of all ages were susceptible and
symptoms initiated during cooler weather accompanied
with rains and the disease spread continued even after
rains. In most of the cases, the lower six to eight leaves
were completely defoliated. The disease development was
observed with initial appearance of brown circular or
angular leaf spots of 1-3 mm diameter with yellow
margins visible on both leaf surfaces [Fig. 1]. These spots
enlarged later to an extent of 8 mm diameter and became
necrotic. The necrotic spots were then covered with
black masses of fungal spores, which were blistering on
the abaxial surface of the leaf with well developed
erumpent stroma. Later, the leaf spots coalesced to form
wider area and caused premature dropping of lower
leaves. Later the spots spread to leaves in the middle
portion of the plant and caused severe defoliation. The
disease spread was rapid where the initial spots appeared
small but coalesced and turned necrotic within 3 days
and the whole leaf was defoliated within 7 to 8 days.
The disease incidence was not observed on the fruits.
The fungus on the infected leaves were confirmed
as Asperisporium caricae based on morphological
characters as per the description and illustrations
(Adikaram and Wijepala, 1995; Cumagun and Padilla,
2007; Ellis and Holliday, 1972). The black fungal mass
in the leaf consisted of numerous hypophyllous spores
which were dark blackish brown to black in color. (Fig.
2). Further, microscopic observations revealed the

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 Thiribhuvanamala et al.
presence of numerous conidiophores that were
olivaceeous brown, geniculate, smooth in dense fascicles
with several prominent conidial scars at the tip up to
61mm long x 5-7mm wide. Conidia emerged as solitary,
ellipsoidal, pyriform or clavate, one septate, hyaline to
pale brown and measured 18-38 x 6-13mm in size. Hila
were thick and dark with one conidium per hilum.
There is possibility of the pathogen to affect the
fruits as described (Tony Cooke, 2010), hence further
studies on the epidemiology of this disease with respect
to spread, survival, study of alternate hosts and
management practices needs to given due consideration
to mitigate the crop loss due to this disease.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The support extended by All India Coordinated
Research Project (AICRP) on Fruits is highly
acknowledged.
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Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems,
Vol. 22, No. 2 pp 193-194(2016)
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MS Received : 7 October 2016
MS Accepted : 16 December 2016
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