Ph.D. Scholar Institute of wood science and technology Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Body of Abstract: An evergreen tree native to the Indian peninsula, the Indian sandalwood (Santalum album Linn.) is well-known across the world for its aromatic heartwood. Across the Indian subcontinent, sandalwood plantations are gaining importance, necessitating large-scale development and the construction of nurseries with high-quality planting materials (QPM). However, deadly diseases result in a substantial mortality rate among the planting stock. Therefore, there is a pressing need for these diseases to be effectively managed. In our study, we isolated and identified a phytopathogenic fungi Colletotrichum siamense causing anthracnose disease with a disease incidence of 75 %. Initially, molecular identification using the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences were performed followed by multi-locus gene (beta-tubulin (TUB2), glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene, chitin synthase 1 gene (CHS‐1), actin gene (ACT) and glutamine synthetase (GS) genes) analysis for precise identification and the sequences were deposited to GenBank. The sequences were analyzed using Colletotrichum sp. representative sequences, and a multilocus Bayesian inference phylogenetic tree with concatenated data from the ITS, GAPDH, ACT, CHS1, and GS genes was created using Beast version 1.8.4 to confirm isolate identification. This study compiles crucial information that will enable epidemiologic investigations and the development of control methods to deal with this recently discovered disease.