Angular leaf spot of cotton, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum, is a significant disease affecting cotton crops worldwide, leading to yield losses of 5-27%. Symptoms include dark green, water-soaked angular spots on leaves, which can progress to black arm syndrome and internal boll rot. Management strategies focus on resistant varieties, cultural practices, and chemical controls to mitigate the disease's impact.

1. Angular leaf spot of Cotton
Paper- 403 C
Plant pathology
PRESENTED BY- YUNUS KHAN
MSC FINAL YEAR 4TH SEM
SUBMITTED TO – DR. SHARAD BISSA
ASST. PROF DEPT. OF BOTANY,
JNV UNIVERSITY JODHPUR

2. Introduction
Angular leaf spot of cotton (bacterial blight) is found in all the major cotton-producing areas of the world.
 However, it remains a potentially important disease because of the variability of the pathogen and the
appearance of new races.
The main cause of yield loss is the blackarm symptom, which results from the loss of the fruiting branches.
Boll rot can occur when the bacterium is introduced through the carpel wall on the stylet of insects such as
species of Dysdercus.
In India, losses of 5-20% were common in crops (Verma and Singh, 1971).
Meshram and Raj (1992) reported that disease intensities of 56.4 and 53.2% resulted in losses of 25.08% and
23.68%, respectively. Meshram et al. (1988) reported losses of between 19 and 27% in different cultivars of
cotton.
Bacterial blight continues to cause substantial losses in India where losses of 20-27% have been reported
(Meshram et al., 1988; Meshram and Raj, 1992).

3. Distribution

4. Symptoms
The most common and conspicuous symptom is angular leaf spot which begins
with dark-green, water-soaked spots, initially more clearly visible on the
underside of the leaf lamina; the spots are angular in shape, being delimited by
the smaller veins.
 Older spots become dark-brown or black and are visible on the upper surface
of the leaves.
The angular spots may be few in number in more resistant host material but,
on susceptible cultivars, they can cover much of the leaf, causing chlorosis,
followed by necrosis and distortion of the lamina.
Similar spots may be found on the cotyledons of young seedlings where
infection occurs from the soil or seed during germination and emergence.

6. Conti…
Under favorable conditions, infection may spread from the seedling cotyledon
or the leaf onto the petiole and then to the main stem, leading to seedling
mortality in susceptible cultivars.
In older plants, the lesions can girdle the main branches causing them to break,
with the loss of leaves and fruiting branches. This phase of the bacterial blight
syndrome is known as black arm because of the blackened appearance of the
affected petioles and branches.
Sometimes infection on the leaf occurs as water-soaked tissue, which later turns
black, on either side of the main veins. This is referred to as vein blight and can
occur together with, or occasionally in the absence of, angular leaf spot.

8. Conti…
In older plants, water-soaked lesions can occur on the bracts of the epicalyx and
more commonly on the developing boll.
 Bacterial boll rot begins as roughly spherical water-soaked spots on the boll
surface which can expand to >1 cm in diameter on susceptible cultivars, becoming
black as they age and penetrating the boll cortex to cause internal boll rot.
The blight bacterium can also be introduced into the young boll during feeding
on the seed by the cotton stainer (Dysdercus spp.). This causes the lint to become
stained yellow or brown and sometimes leads to internal boll rot.

10. List of symptoms/signs
1. Fruit - lesions: black or brown
2. Fruit - lesions: scab or pitting
3. Leaves - abnormal colors
4. Leaves - abnormal forms
5. Leaves - abnormal patterns
6. Leaves - necrotic areas
7. Stems - discoloration of bark

11. Causal organism
Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum
 A Gram negative,
motile
rod-shaped,
non spore-forming bacterium
with a single polar flagellum.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Proteobacteria
Class: Gammaproteobacteria
Order: Xanthomonadales
Family: Xanthomonadaceae
Genus: Xanthomonas
Species: axonopodis

12. Culture of X.axonopodis pv malvacearum

13. Host plants / species affected
1. Ceiba pentandra (kapok)
2. Gossypium arboream (cotton)
3. Gossypium barbadense (Gallini cotton)
4. Gossypium herbaceum (short staple cotton)
5. Gossypium hirsutum (Bourbon cotton)
6. Jatropha curcas (jatropha)

14. Disease cycle

15. Disease management
Control measures against bacterial blight are necessary in all the
main cotton-growing areas of the world. Control is achieved
mainly through the use of resistant varieties which have reduced
the disease to a minor status on Upland cottons in many
countries where it was once a serious problem. To ensure that it
remains a minor disease, it is necessary to avoid the introduction
of exotic races of the pathogen on imported seed and to
continue screening for blight resistance in cotton breeding
programs.

16. Host-Plant Resistance
There is considerable genetic variability for resistance to bacterial blight within the genus Gossypium.
The highest degree of resistance is found in G. hirsutum var. punctatum. Little natural resistance occurs in
G. barbadense.
Knight (1945, 1946, 1954) identified 10 major genes for blight resistance (B-genes) to which he ascribed the
symbols B1 to B10. Eight of these genes were dominant or partially dominant in their expression.
B-genes which confers immunity to all known races of the blight pathogen (Hillocks, 1992).
In the Sudan, most of the successful blight-resistant varieties contain the genes B2 and B6.
A new race of the pathogen has appeared which is virulent to that gene combination, but a line (S2950) has
been developed which is resistant to the new isolate (Wallace and El Zik, 1990).
Varieties with resistance based on the genes B2 and B3 continue to provide protection against blight in
many African countries (Hillocks and Chinodya, 1988) and also in South America (Ruano et al., 1988).

17. Conti…
In the USA, immunity to blight has been stable for over 20 years in some of the
Tamcot varieties (Wallace and El Zik, 1990).
Tamcot and other lines were immune when tested in India and most of the
immune lines carried the genes B2, B3 and B7 (Meshram and Sheo, 1989).

18. Cultural and Sanitary Methods
Crop rotation
Deep ploughing
Soil sanitization
Seed treatment with 2gms of carbendizam per kg of seed.
Use infection free and certified seeds.
late sowing, early thinning, good tillage, early irrigation and addition of potash to the soil minimize the
disease.
Destroy the infected-plant debris.
IPM Programs- One of the earliest successful integrated control programs for bacterial blight was carried
out in the 1950s and 1960s in California, USA.

19. Chemical and Antibiotic control
As it occurs in months of September and November, 100 mg of
tetracycline, streptomycin sulphate, plantamycin, poshamycin; should be
sprayed for 3 or 4 times in every 15 days gap.
Chemicals linked with copper should be sprayed at their recommendation
of 3gm per litre of water to reduce the disese.
Acid delinting followed by seed dressing with carbendazim @3-4g/kg of
seed eliminates seed borne inoculum.
Foliar spray of combination of Poshamycin/Plantomycin 100 mg + 3 gms of
Copper Oxychloride per lit of water for 3 or 4 rounds at 15 days interval
from the time of disease appearance.

20. References
https://www.plantwise.org/KnowledgeBank/Datasheet.aspx?dsid=56948
https://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/viewthread?thread=6738