Species of the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and C. boninense complexes associated with olive anthracnose

The taxonomic status of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides sensu lato (s.l.) associated with olive anthracnose is still unde-termined and the pathogenic ability of this species complex is controversial. In the present study, isolates obtained fromolive and provisionally identified as C. gloeosporioides s.l. on the basis of morphological and cultural features werereclassified using ITS and TUB2 as DNA barcode markers and referred to seven distinct species, recently separatedwithin C. gloeosporioides (C. aenigma, C. gloeosporioides sensu stricto (s.s.), C. kahawae, C. queenslandicum, C. sia-mense and C. theobromicola) and C. boninense (C. karstii) species complexes. Furthermore, isolates of C. kahawaewere ascribed to the subspecies ciggaro by analysing the GS gene. A single isolate, not in either of these two speciescomplexes, was not identified at the species level. In pathogenicity tests on detached olive drupes some of these species,including C. aenigma, C. kahawae subsp. ciggaro, C. queenslandicum, C. siamense and C. karstii, were shown to beweakly pathogenic. Moreover, they were found very sporadically on olive. In contrast, some isolates of C. gloeosporio-ides s.s. and isolates of C. theobromicola proved to be virulent on both green and ripening olives. This study gives abetter insight into both the aetiology and the epidemiology of olive anthracnose and might have implications for biose-curity and quarantine because C. theobromicola has never been reported in major European olive-producing countries.