Molecular Characterization of Effective Biocontrol Agent against Aspergillus Flavus Causing Yellow Mold in Groundnut (Arachis HYPOGEA L.)

Dr. Dande Swapna Sree

Abstract: Isolation of the rhizosphere microflora from the groundnut fields was done by serial dilution method and the microorganisms isolated were screened for antagonistic effect against Aspergillus flavus. Two fungal strains namely Penicillium sp, and Trichoderma asperellum and four bacterial strains namely Pseudomonas fluorescence, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus sp. were isolated and identified through morphological and biochemical characteristics from rhizosphere of groundnut. Trichoderma asperellum among fungal isolate and Pseudomonas fluorescence from bacterial isolate showed more antagonistic effect against Aspergillus flavus and thus proved to be potent biocontrol agents. Of the two potent biocontrol agents, Trichoderma asperellum showed maximum inhibitory zone against Aspergillus flavus and hence molecular characterization of isolate of Trichoderma asperellum was carried out. These studies revealed that revealed 99.84 % similarity with ITS sequence of T. asperellum (Gen Bank Accession No. KY225658.1) when compared with GenBank Database using DDBJ BLAST search programme.

Keywords: Groundnut, Aspergillus flavus, Yellow mold, Molecular characterization, IT sequences, Trichoderma asperellum, antagonism