Open AccessEndophytic Fungi as Potential Bio-Control Agents against Root Knot Nematode, Meloidogyne incognita in Banana
Author(s) -
K. Ganeshan,
P. Vetrivelkalai,
B. Bhagawati,
Nibha Gupta,
K. Devrajan,
M. Raveendran,
D. Balachandar
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
current journal of applied science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2457-1024
DOI - 10.9734/cjast/2021/v40i2931536
Subject(s) - meloidogyne incognita , biology , terra incognita , root knot nematode , horticulture , plant use of endophytic fungi in defense , fusarium oxysporum , nematode , population , veterinary medicine , germination , botany , medicine , ecology , demography , sociology
A Survey was conducted in 12 districts of Assam to collect 92 healthy banana root samples. A total of 55 fungal isolates were successfully isolated from commercial banana cultivars. The culture filtrates were extracted from 55 endophytic fungal isolates and screened against root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita in vitro and pot culture studies. Among them, five fungal isolates viz., EF4, BF7, BF27, BF28 and BF35 showed 100% inhibition of egg hatching and 96.33 to 81.33% juvenile mortality of M. incognita with an exposure period of 72h when compared to other isolates and control. On paddy seed treatment with endophytic fungi of five promising isolates, two isolates viz., BF7 and BF28 significantly enhanced germination percentage (82.67%, 73.33%) and vigour index (62.91, 47.24%), respectively. The selected five endophytic fungal isolates were evaluated for their efficacy against M. incognita in banana under pot culture conditions. The study revealed that culture filtrates of BF7 and BF28 significantly reduced the soil and root nematode population, number of adult females, egg masses and root gall index of M.incognita compared to untreated control. The isolates BF7 and BF28 also significantly increased the growth parameters viz., pseudostem height, root length and pseudostem girth. These promising endophytic fungal isolates viz., BF7 and BF28 were identified as non-pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum strains (Accession no. MN567668) and (Accession no. MN567710), respectively by PCR -18S rRNA of ITS region of gene sequence and phylogenetic tree construction.