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Canistel ( Pouteria campechiana ) is a fruit tree native to Central America. Records of diseases affecting this crop in Brazil are still scarce. This study aimed to identify and characterize the etiological agent responsible for necrotic spots on canistel leaves and fruit. Leaf lesion border fragments were used to isolate the potential pathogen. Pathogenicity tests were performed, followed by re-isolation and confirming the identity of the inoculated fungus. Initial symptoms on the inoculated leaves were small, circular irregular light brown spots that gradually increased in size and produced acervuli that released conidia surrounded by an orange mucilaginous mass. The fungal colonies were white to gray in the center, with white margins. The conidia were hyaline, unicellular, straight, cylindrical or elliptical. The sequencing of the ribosomal gene showed similarity to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides . This is the first report of anthracnose by C. gloeosporioides on canistel in Brazil.

The target leaf spot, an end-of-cycle disease that can cause soybean losses of 40%, is caused by the fungus Corynespora cassiicola. The aim of this study was to devise and validate a multiplex PCR protocol for the molecular identification of C. cassiicola, in both pure cultures of isolates and plants. For the analysis, a total of 75 samples was evaluated been 57 possible fungal isolates of C. cassiicola and 18 soybean plants displaying symptoms associated with target leaf spot. Total DNA was extracted from the pure cultures of the isolates and of four symptomatic leaf discs taken from each of the plants soybean evaluated and submitted to the conventional multiplex PCR technique using two primer pairs: ITS-1/ITS-4 and GA4-F/GA4-R. The ideal conditions for multiplex PCR were adjusted. The 57 isolates identified as C. cassiicola and among the evaluated plants, 15 samples were infected. Conventional multiplex PCR is efficient at identifying Corynespora cassiicola isolates and for rapid diagnosis of infected plants.