జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ప్లాంట్ పాథాలజీ & మైక్రోబయాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Exploitation of Fungal and Endophytic Bacteria for the Management of Leaf Blight of Ribbon Plant

Arjunan Muthukumar and Arjunan Venkatesh

Leaf blight of ribbon plant caused by Alternaria alternata is a serious disease in hanging baskets in households. In vitro experiments evaluated the effect of seven isolates of Trichoderma species (from ribbon plant rhizosphere) and ten isolates of endophytic bacteria (from ribbon plant phylloplane) were tested against A. alternata. All the Trichoderma species had varied antagonistic effects against the pathogen. Among them, THA recorded maximum growth inhibition of A. alternata. Most of the bacterial isolates tested were short rods and produced bright fluorescence when exposed to UV light. Among the isolates, EBL 5 produced the largest inhibition zone and the least mycelial growth of A. alternata. The study identified the Trichoderma isolate (THA) and endophytic bacterial isolate (EBL 5) performed well in inhibiting the mycelial growth of test pathogen.