Potential of Trichoderma spp. as Biological Control Agents Against Bakanae Pathogen (Fusarium fujikuroi) in Rice

Abstract

Bakanae disease is a major rice disease caused by Fusarium fujikuroi. Infected plants show slender and hyper elongated internodes due to the over-production of gibberellic acid. Application of Trichoderma spp. as biocontrol agent is gaining attention due to high capability in hyperparasitize the soil borne pathogen. The studies aimed to screen and evaluate the bio-efficacy of Trichoderma spp. with antagonistic activities against F. fujikuroi and plant growth-promoting properties. All the 65 Trichoderma isolates were isolated from healthy rice rhizosphere soil. Thirty eight out of 65 Trichoderma isolates exhibited more than 45 Percentage of Inhibition Radial Growth (PIRG) against F. fujikuroi in dual culture plate testing. All selected Trichoderma isolates were further in vitro screened for antagonistic testing: volatile compounds production and hydrogen cyanide production and plant growth-promotion properties: IAA production and phosphate solubilization. Twelve Trichoderma isolates were selected for further evaluation on antagonistic activity against F. fujikuroi, germination rate, plumule and radical lengths and vigor index. Finally, seven of the most potential Trichoderma isolates were selected for greenhouse evaluation. The bakanae disease incidence and disease severity in rice plant treated with respective selected Trichoderma isolates were significant reduced as compared with untreated plant. However, there was no significant increase in plant height between Trichoderma inoculated and uninoculated plants. Moreover, rice plant treated with Trichoderma T61 showed significantly increase in total plant dry biomass as compared to untreated plants. The selected Trichoderma isolates have potential to be developed as biological control agent against F. fujikuroi and also as an alternative for bakanae management.

Study on the Different Modes of Action of Potential Trichoderma spp. from Banana Rhizosphere against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense

“…However, the ability of Trichoderma species depends on the kind and strain of Trichoderma and source of phosphate (Kapri and Tewari, 2010;Promwee, 2011). Our finding was also supported by many workers (Rawat and Tewari, 2011;Promwee et al, 2014;Ng et al, 2015) who reported that even though Trichoderma species revealed good mycelia growth, there was no formation of halo-zone on the solid medium containing insoluble inorganic phosphorus source. In addition, Nautiyal (1999) reported that the criterion for isolation of phosphate solubilizers based on the formation of a visible halo-zone on Pikovskaya's agar is not a reliable technique because many isolates of Phosphate Solubilizing Microorganisms (PSM), which did not show any clear zone on agar plates, could be able to solubilize insoluble inorganic phosphates in liquid medium.…”

“…This is mainly due to cyanide production by microbes which can acts as a general metabolic inhibitor to avoid predation or competition without harming the host plants (Noori and Saud, 2012.). The result of the present investigation is also supported by Aarti and Meenu (2015), Ng et al, (2015) and Mohiddin et al, (2017) who reported the positive production of HCN by Trichoderma spp.…”

Identification and evaluation of secondary metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in native strains of Trichoderma species

“…The antagonic effects of the genus Trichoderma have been reported in several phytopathogens of economic importance (Woo et al, 2014) including Phytophthora infestans (Kerroum et al, 2015), Fusarium fujikuroi (Ng et al, 2015) (Naglot et al, 2015).…”

Production of Coconut Aroma in Solid-State Cultivation: Screening and Identification ofTrichodermaStrains for 6-Pentyl-Alpha-Pyrone and Conidia Production

“…e behavior of this strain should be investigated against phytopathogenic fungi such as, for example, Fusarium oxysporum, Botrytis cinerea, Crinipellis perniciosa, and Rhizoctonia solani [12,13,32,33]. For this reason, it is important to produce 6-PP, conidia, or biomass in large amounts to meet field requirements.…”