Development of Rapid Molecular Detection Marker for Colletotrichum spp. in Leaf and Fruit Tissues of Sweet Persimmon

Sweet persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) is widely cultivated in the southern part of Korea and its cultivation is increasing. However, anthracnose disease caused by Colletotricuhum species is one of the major hinderances to the cultivation and production of sweet persimmon. Therefore, in the current study, PCR was used to specifically detect Colletotrichum spp., based on the sequences of the ITS II regions in the rDNA. Using the sequence data, CO-1 was designated to detect Colletotrichum together the with ITS 4 primer. The result showed that a single segment of ca. 500 bp was observed only in Colletotrichum, but not in any other fungal and bacterial isolates. The annealing temperatures and template DNA quantites were also investigated to identify optimal conditions for detection. Using these species-specific primers, a unique band was obtained at annealing temperatures ranging from $55^{\circ}C\;and\;61^{\circ}C$ and template DNA levels from 10 pg- $10{\mu}g$.