Kabita Gurung, Khashti Dasila, Anita Pandey and Niladri Bag
Abstract
Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.)- a high valued spice crop and one of the important cash crops of Sikkim. Sikkim produces 84% of large cardamom production in India. But for the past three decades, the crop has been at risk due to several biological and climatic problems. The crop is infested with several fungal diseases including leaf streak. It is characterized by rectangular and translucent streak on young leaves along the veins. Later these streaks turn brown showing a necrotic appearance with crinkled leaf. The present study aimed to isolate, characterize and identify the causal organisms of leaf stock in large cardamom. Based on morpho-physiological and molecular analysis using ITS region 4 and 5, followed by BLAST analysis, the isolate was identified as Pestalotiopsis sp. The corresponding sequences have been archived in NCBI GenBank with accession number MN710582, while the fungal culture has been deposited at NFCCI-ARI, Pune, under accession number NFCCI-4698.