Control of Fusarium wilt in melon by the fungal endophyte, Cadophora sp.

Abstract

Two soil-borne fungal endophytes almost completely suppressed the effects of a post-inoculated and virulent strain of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis when inoculated to axenically reared melon seedlings in Petri dishes. They were identified as Cadophora sp. on the basis of ITS 1–5.8S rDNA–ITS 2 sequences and morphological characters and obtained from the roots of Chinese cabbage grown as bait plants in a mixed soil made up of samples from different forest soils from Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Hyphae of Cadophora sp. grew along the surface of the root and colonized root cells of the cortex and reduced the ingress of the Fusarium pathogen into adjacent cells. Melon seedlings pre-inoculated with Cadophora sp. were also grown in soil amended with the different N sources, nitrate or the amino acids leucine and valine, and glucose (final C:N ratio = 10:1). After 4 weeks, these seedlings were transplanted into the field and disease symptoms were assessed. Only the endophyte-inoculated seedlings treated with valine could effectively inhibit the development of Fusarium wilt in two plots and reduced disease symptom development by 43 and 62 %.