Studies on effect of in vitro co-cultivation of Arachis hypogaea with Piriformospora indica on plant growth

Abstract

Piriformospora indica, a novel, axenically cultivable, endophytic fungus belongs to recently defined family Sebacinaceae, colonizes the roots of variety of plants and shows significant plant growth promotion, increased biomass and other multi-functional activities. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is the important oil-seed crop in India. The present study was performed aiming to co-cultivate P. Indica with A. hypogaea roots under In vitro conditions and results were analyzed by Two-sample analysis test. The growth parameters under In vitro study of P. Indica treated and controlled plants such as plant biomass (fresh weight, dry weight), shoot length, root length, protein content were significant and found non-significant in sugar content and total chlorophyll content. The staining and the microscopic observation s confirmed the persistence of chlamydospores of P. indica intracellularly in treated roots. The PCR reaction performed to monitor the existence of P. indica in A. hypogaea roots, the band size 220 bp was observed in treated plant root and fungal mycelia where it was absent in control and untreated root sample. The results of this study indicated the growth enhancement of plant under co-cultivation, so the P. indica could be exploited to boost up the growth enhancement effects in A. hypogaea.