ISOLATION AND EVALUATION OF NATIVE STRAINS OF PSEUDOMONAS FLUORESCENS FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF CHICKPEA WILT CAUSED BY FUSARIUM OXYSPORUMF. SP. CICERI

Abstract

In this study, antagonistic effect of twenty isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens isolated from rhizosphere of Chickpea was evaluated against Fusariumoxysporum f.sp. ciceri as potential bio-control agentin-vitro and in- vivo.Six isolates, Pf18 (80.1%), Pf4 (79.8%),Pf20(76.4%),Pf19(73%), Pf13 (72.6%) and Pf14 (70.3%) were selected according to their high antagonistic efficiency in in-vitro which was shown as maximuminhibition % in dual culture assay. Green house experiment the same six isolates effectively reduced the percentage of wilted plants, percentage ranges from 4-18% at 30 DAS, 14-30% at 60DAS and 30.6-39.4 % at 90 DAS and the best disease control was achieved by isolate Pf18 (41.75%) over control. In field trial isolate Pf14 was found significantly superior than other isolates in increasing the growth parameter and germination percentage (96.7-98%) over control of chickpea plant. These isolates significantly reduced the percentage of wilted plants (30.5-36.6 %) compared with untreated control (81.6%) at 90 DAS. Thus, our results indicate that native isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens improve growth parameter in plants and can help in the bio control of pathogen.