ABSTRACT

A laboratory study was conducted to study the relationship between storage fungi of cowpea and their colonization of the roots. Freshly harvested cowpea seeds after drying were stored for a year to determine the fungi appeared during storage. Sampling was made after one year of storage and found that stored cowpea seeds were associated with twenty different fungal strains. Among the fungal species Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus ochraceus was the most dominant species isolated from surface sterilized and non sterilized seeds respectively. To determine the relationship between fungi present during storage and their colonization of root, cowpea seeds were grown in three series of pots viz. surface sterilized seeds in natural soil, non sterilized seeds in sterilized soil and non sterilized seeds in natural soil. When surface sterilized seeds grown in natural soil, some fungal species already isolated from the surface sterilized seeds were absent in the soil of colonization. Fungi associated with rhizosphere of cowpea grown from non sterilized seeds in sterilized soil were almost similar to that of the fungi isolated from the sterilized and non sterilized seeds. All the fungi present in the rhizosphere of cowpea from surface sterilized seeds in natural soil as well as non sterilized seeds in sterilized soil were observed when non sterilized seeds were grown in natural soil. Therefore, present study confirmed that there is a movement of some storage fungi from seeds to their developing roots during the seed germination. Keywords: Cowpea, Mycoflora, Storage, Rhizosphere
Publication date: 01/04/21

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2021/April/MS_IJBPAS_2021_5444.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2021/10.4.5444