Isolation of fungal endophytes of rice and their antagonistic effect against some important rice fungal pathogens in vitro

Abstract

Fourteen endophytic fungi viz. Cladosporium cladosporioides, Penicillium citrinum, Fusarium moniliforme, Trichoderma asperellum, Penicillium pinophilum, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Drechslera specifera, Penicillium oxalicum, Geotrichum candidum, Curvularia lunata, Aspergillus amstelodami, Talaromyces sp., and Chaetomium ochraceum isolated from rice plant were screened under in vitro to see their antagonistic effect on three important rice fungal pathogens viz. Pyricularia oryzae, Bipolaris oryzae and Ustilaginoidea virens. In dual culture, A. niger was found most promising as antagonist against P. oryzae with 79.63 per cent inhibition of radial growth followed by A. amstelodami (70.37%), T. asperellum (69.81%), and P. citrinum (69.63). The highest per cent inhibiton of mycelial growth of B. oryzae was observed for T. asperellum with 77.77 that is closely followed by other endophytes like A. niger (76.47%), A. flavus (74.81%), G. candidum (72.22%) and C. lunata (72.22%). The highest per cent inhibition of U. virens was again observed for T. asperellum (53.54%) followed by A. niger (44.52%), G. candidum (44.52%) and A. amstelodami (43.86%).