Three dimensional plant growth promoting activity of Trichoderma asperellum in maize (Zea mays L.) against Fusarium moniliforme

Abstract

Fusarium moniliforme is one of the important soil-borne pathogen causing stalk and ear rot diseases in maize. So, aim of our study is to identify the suitable and eco-friendly strategies to sort out the problem arising from rot disease in maize. In our present investigation, we isolated a total of 18 nonpathogenic fungal strains from rhizospheric soil of maize growing field of Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India. Out of the 18 fungal strains, four strains of Trichoderma asperellum viz. RGH1, RGI1, RGD2 and RD3 were selected for their three dimensional plant growth promoting activities in maize Analysis of our observation on the study revealed that all the T. asperellum strains were showing three dimensional plant growth promoting activities in maize. It may therefore be concluded that T. asperellum may be consider as a promising eco-friendly bio-control, bio fertiliser and biotic plant defence elicitor for sustainable agriculture.

Keywords:

• Fusarium moniliforme
• Trichoderma asperellum
• sustainable agriculture
• PAL
• PPO
• ISR

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the whole team of Division of Plant Pathology, IARI, New Delhi for authentic identification of strains.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).