Colletotrichum higginsianum is an ascomycete pathogen that causes anthracnose disease on many plants in the Brassicaceae, including Arabidopsis thaliana and many cultivated forms of Brassica and Raphanus.

[1] In order to identify Colletotrichum higginsianum, you would first start off searching for small, dark spots or water-soaked lesions on leaves, stems, or fruits.

Reasoning one would look for these identifications is because Colletotrichum higginsianum produces spores in acervuli, which are fungal fruiting structures that break through the surface of the host tissue.

This would define its final stage as nectrotrophy (a parasitic process where an organism kills the living cells of its host and then feeds on the dead matter).

This means that in order for this fungus to obtain energy, it "first establishes a biotrophic interaction by evading the plant’s defense mechanisms and later switches to a necrotrophic phase, in which it kills the host cells and feeds on them.

Through research and studies, we have now observed that the role of a terpenoid in manipulating the host defense response was discovered through a forward chemical genetics approach, using Arabidopsis thaliana and C. higginsianum as the plantepathogen pair.

In regions where they do not have the ability to expend extra resources on crops or agriculture, one sweep of this pathogenic fungusi could not only be detrimental to the plant species, but significantly decrease the production of food and medicine.

"By recognizing host physical and chemical cues, C. higginsianum conidia differentiate melanized appressorium, an infection structure, at the tips of conidial germ tubes.

Appressorium formation is required for successful infection since the fungus penetrates the cuticle and plant cell wall by utilization of enormous turgor pressure in melanized appressoria for further invasive growth.