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S. THAHIR BASHA, M. NAGALAKSHMI DEVAMMA* AND N.P. ESWARA REDDY
Department of Botany, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati – 517502, India
Environmental problems have raised great interest in ecofriendly sustainable agricultural practices. Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important fruit crops in India and the state of Andhra Pradesh is leading in production and productivity is severely affected with the devastating anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides reducing the fruit quality and responsible for 30 to 60 per cent of postharvest losses. Of all the 276 (bacteria – 247 + fungi – 29) putative leaf endophytes screened against the aggressive pathogenic isolate Cg25, the complete inhibition (100%) of the C. gloeosporioides pathogen was recorded by the bacterial endophytes EB07, EB35, EB39, EB99, EB57 and EB59. The potential bacterial leaf endophyte EB35 along with its compatible fungicide thiophanate methyl (25 ppm) proved to be the best combination in combating the anthracnose disease both in vitro and in field trials and delayed the ripening of mango fruits upto 14 days was identified as Bacillus subtilis (EB35) based on 16S rRNA analysis. The talc based formulations of these endophytes evaluated upto 90 days were viable at 4°C and remained potent against C. gloeosporioides in dual culture study. The suppressive effect of these beneficial endophytes may also be affected by environmental conditions. In this context research findings on development of cost effective and ecofriendly region specific formulations against C. gloeosporioides are herewith proposed.
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, anthracnose, endophytes, formulations.