Antagonistic Potential of Trichoderma against Fusarium pallidoroseum

Abstract

Trichoderma species, a biocontrol agent used as an alternative to harmful and pollution-causing chemical pesticides has been found to be effective against a wide range of bacterial and fungal plant pathogens. The present work studies the efficiency of different Trichoderma isolates against a fungal phytopathogen Fusarium pallidoroseum through dual culture method and poisoned agar method by calculating the percentage inhibition of radial growth (PIRG) of the fungal pathogen. In dual culture assay, all the isolates showed significant inhibition of the pathogen with isolate T4 identified as Trichoderma erinaceum showing maximum mycelial growth inhibition of 66.63% and isolate T3 identified as Trichoderma afroharzianum showing minimum inhibition of 63.28%. In poisoned agar method, the highest inhibition of the pathogen (75.98%) was shown by isolate T1 identified as Trichoderma yunnanense when concentration of 30% (v/v) of culture filtrate was used. The study concludes that Trichoderma isolates as well as the compounds secreted by them show an effective antagonism against Fusarium pallidoroseum, which not only infects important agricultural crops and plants in the field but also causes post-harvest fruit rot.