DisclosureThe authors declare no conflicts of interest. All the experiments undertaken in this study comply with the current laws of the country where they were performed.The objective of this study was to assess the interactions between Scytalidium parasiticum and Ganoderma boninense, the causal agent of basal stem rot in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis).When compared with S. ganodermophthorum and S. sphaerosporum, S. parasiticum (Sp) showed greater inhibition toward all Ganoderma isolates during in vitro co-culturing. At the Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 05:14 28 June 2016 2 interaction zone, coiling of host hyphae, formation of short lateral enlarged contact structures, and production of potential appressorium-like organs were observed in Sp on G. boninense.These were followed by the degradation, shrinkage, and deformation of G. boninense mycelia.Sp also reduced mycelial survival and fruiting body regeneration of G. boninense. Nonvolatile metabolites from Sp suppressed the growth of G. boninense. Our results show that Sp could be a necrotrophic mycoparasite of G. boninense. Nursery experiments revealed that Sp was non-pathogenic to oil palm seedlings, and it could suppress Ganoderma infection and reduce disease severity. Sp also increased the height of palms in the positive control with non-Ganoderma-inoculated rubber wood block and Sp inoculum compared to similar control without Sp. Leaf area was significantly greater in the G. boninense G8 inoculated palms when Sp was present compared to without Sp. These results show that Sp might be a potential biocontrol candidate against BSR of oil palm.
The influence of different medium components (glucose, sucrose, and fructose) on the growth of different Ganoderma isolates and species was investigated using mixture design. Ten sugar combinations based on three simple sugars were generated with two different concentrations, namely 3.3% and 16.7%, which represented low and high sugar levels, respectively. The media were adjusted to either pH 5 or 8. Ganoderma isolates (two G. boninense from oil palm, one Ganoderma species from coconut palm, G. lingzhi, and G. australe from tower tree) grew faster at pH 8. Ganoderma lingzhi proliferated at the slowest rate compared to all other tested Ganoderma species in all the media studied. However, G. boninense isolates grew the fastest. Different Ganoderma species were found to have different sugar preferences. This study illustrated that the mixture design can be used to determine the optimal combinations of sugar or other nutrient/chemical components of media for fungal growth.
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