Morphological and molecular characterisation of Trichoderma asperellum (T. viride) and evaluating bio-control efficacy against Fusarium wilt of chilli caused by Fusarium incarnatum
*N.H. Sankara Reddy1 and K. Rajamohan2
Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar-608002 (India) *Email: shankarr993@gmail.com Contributions: N.H. Sankara Reddy – Research and Writing. K. Rajamohan - Supervision and Review
ABSTRACT
Chilli fusarium wilt of one of the destructive diseases of chilli production that affects yield and quality. There are various species of fusarium associated with chilli fusarium wilt in India. Use of synthetic chemicals are commercially employed from years will affect the soil health, environment and food chain. By concerning environmental safety and biodegradability bio control agents are seems to be best alternative cost-effective management practise which helps to recover the soil health and environment. Biocontrol agents like Trichoderma has been reported to be effective against many soil borne pathogens, it not only protect the plants from invading pathogens but also helps to activate plant defense mechanism. A total of 10 Trichoderma spp. were isolated and tested their antagonistic activity against fusarium wilt of chilli pathogen, Fusarium incarnatum. Among the isolates tested T9 found to be effective and recorded the maximum percent inhibition over control (75.6) followed by T6 (71.0) and least was recorded in T2 (48.9) in dual culture technique, Ten Trichoderma isolates are further tested in poison food technique at various concentrations 5%, 10%, 15 % and 20% and the reading were recorded. ITS region of rDNA amplification with ITS1 and ITS4 universal primers produced approximately 570 bp product shows the virulent samples were confirmed as T. asperellum. The sequence was deposited in GenBank with the accession number, ON909758).