Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are the rhizosphere bacteria that may be utilized to augment plant growth and suppress plant diseases. The objectives of this study were to identify and characterize PGPR indigenous to cucumber rhizosphere in Bangladesh, and to evaluate their ability to suppress Phytophthora crown rot in cucumber. A total of 66 isolates were isolated, out of which 10 (PPB1, PPB2, PPB3, PPB4, PPB5, PPB8, PPB9, PPB10, PPB11, and PPB12) were selected based on their in vitro plant growth promoting attributes and antagonism of phytopathogens. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequences identified these isolates as new strains of Pseudomonas stutzeri, Bacillus subtilis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. The selected isolates produced high levels (26.78–51.28 μg mL-1) of indole-3-acetic acid, while significant acetylene reduction activities (1.79–4.9 μmole C2H4 mg-1 protein h-1) were observed in eight isolates. Cucumber plants grown from seeds that were treated with these PGPR strains displayed significantly higher levels of germination, seedling vigour, growth, and N content in root and shoot tissue compared to non-treated control plants. All selected isolates were able to successfully colonize the cucumber roots. Moreover, treating cucumber seeds with these isolates significantly suppressed Phytophthora crown rot caused by Phytophthora capsici, and characteristic morphological alterations in P. capsici hyphae that grew toward PGPR colonies were observed. Since these PGPR inoculants exhibited multiple traits beneficial to the host plants, they may be applied in the development of new, safe, and effective seed treatments as an alternative to chemical fungicides.

A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of black point and percentages of germination, moisture content and different fungi associated with wheat seeds during storage in different types of container. Seeds of a widely cultivated variety Kanchan were stored in five types of containers viz., 'dole'(bamboo made), earthen pitcher, tin container, polyethylene bag and refrigerator (10 0 C) for ten months at room temperature. Samples were taken at monthly interval beginning from the month of April (prior to storage). The seed moisture content and black point severity were found highest in dole resulting in the lowest percentage of seed germination. The highest germination percentage was observed under storage in refrigerator followed by polyethylene bag, tin container and earthen pitcher. The moisture content and black point infection increased and seed germination decreased with the increase of storage period. Prior to storage in April, the seed germination was 95%, which decreased to about 75% at the end often months of storage (in January). Various fungal flora associated with wheat seeds differed in their prevalence depending on the length of storage period and types of container used for storage. The population of field fungi viz., Alternaria alternata, Aiternaria triticina, Bipolaris sorokiniana, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Curvularia lunata, Epicoccum purpurascens and Fusarium spp. decreased while that of storage fungi viz., Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Nigrospora, Penicillium and Rhizopus increased with the progress of storage period.

Performance of potato seed tubers of first, second, third, fourth, and fifth generations were evaluated against PVY and PLRV. Potato plants grown from first generation seed tubers were free from PVY infection. Incidence of the virus was the minimal at second generation, which increased afterwards steadily by third, fourth, and fifth generations. Incidence of PLRV was minimal at first generation. It increased gradually with the advancement of generation seed tubers showing the highest incidence at fifth generation. The highest plant growth and tuber yield were recorded at second generation, which was followed by third, fourth, and fifth generations. The highest reduction in plant height, tuber number, and tuber yield were recorded in 5th generation due to infection of PVY and PLRV. Keywords: Generation evaluation; PVY; PLRV; growth; yield; potato DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i1.5865Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(1) : 37-50, March 2010

No abstract

A rhizosphere fungus was isolated from roots of chilli plants and identified as Aspergillus spp. PPA1. The fungus was tested for its ability to promote the growth of cucumber plants in a pot experiment. Cucumber seeds were sown in sterilised field soil amended with wheat grain inoculum (WGI) of PPA 1 at the rate of 0.5, 1 and 1.5% w/w, and plants were grown for 21 days in a net house. The treatment with PPA1 significantly increased shoot length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, plant length, leaf area and leaf chlorophyll content of cucumber plants compared to non-treated control. The growth promotion rate increased with the increasing concentration of inoculum of PPA1 applied to the soil. The fungus was re-isolated from the roots of cucumber plants at higher frequencies. These results suggest that Aspergillus spp. PPA1 is a root colonising plant-growth promoting fungus for cucumber.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is of global importance as a food crop for its edible pod and seed. A new disease causing the tan to light brown blighted stems and pods has occurred in pea (P. sativum L.) plants in Chapainawabganj district, Bangladesh. A fungus with white‐appressed mycelia and large sclerotia was consistently isolated from symptomatic tissues. The fungus formed funnel‐shaped apothecia with sac‐like ascus and endogenously formed ascospores. Healthy pea plants inoculated with the fungus produced typical white mold symptoms. The internal transcribed spacer sequences of the fungus were 100% similar to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, considering the fungus to be the causative agent of white mold disease in pea, which was the first record in Bangladesh. Mycelial growth and sclerotial development of S. sclerotiorum were favored at 20°C and pH 5.0. Glucose was the best carbon source to support hyphal growth and sclerotia formation. Bavistin and Amistar Top inhibited the radial growth of the fungus completely at the lowest concentration. In planta, foliar application of Amistar Top showed the considerable potential to control the disease at 1.0% concentration until 7 days after spraying, while Bavistin prevented infection significantly until 15 days after spraying. A large majority (70.93%) of genotypes, including tested released pea cultivars, were susceptible, while six genotypes (6.98%) appeared resistant to the disease. These results on identification, characterization, host resistance, and fungicidal control of white mold could be valuable to achieve improved management of a new disease problem for pea cultivation.

The application of chemical pesticides to protect agricultural crops from pests and diseases is discouraged due to their harmful effects on humans and the environment. Therefore, alternative approaches for crop protection through microbial or microbe-originated pesticides have been gaining momentum. Wheat blast is a destructive fungal disease caused by the Magnaporthe oryzae Triticum (MoT) pathotype, which poses a serious threat to global food security. Screening of secondary metabolites against MoT revealed that antimycin A isolated from a marine Streptomyces sp. had a significant inhibitory effect on mycelial growth in vitro. This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of antimycin A on some critical life stages of MoT and evaluate the efficacy of wheat blast disease control using this natural product. A bioassay indicated that antimycin A suppressed mycelial growth (62.90%), conidiogenesis (100%), germination of conidia (42%), and the formation of appressoria in the germinated conidia (100%) of MoT at a 10 µg/mL concentration. Antimycin A suppressed MoT in a dose-dependent manner with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.005 μg/disk. If germinated, antimycin A induced abnormal germ tubes (4.8%) and suppressed the formation of appressoria. Interestingly, the application of antimycin A significantly suppressed wheat blast disease in both the seedling (100%) and heading stages (76.33%) of wheat at a 10 µg/mL concentration, supporting the results from in vitro study. This is the first report on the inhibition of mycelial growth, conidiogenesis, conidia germination, and detrimental morphological alterations in germinated conidia, and the suppression of wheat blast disease caused by a Triticum pathotype of M. Oryzae by antimycin A. Further study is required to unravel the precise mode of action of this promising natural compound for considering it as a biopesticide to combat wheat blast.

The performance of eight tomato varieties namely BARI-T1 (Manik), BARI-T2 (Ratan), BARI-T4, BARI-T5, BARI-T6 (Apurba), BARI-T7 (Chaity), BARI-T11 and BARI-T12 were evaluated in respect to