Detection of maize seed-borne fungi and induce resistance against both of Aspergillus niger and Fusarium verticillioides

Abstract

The seeds of six cultivars of maize were screened by both blotter and agar methods for detection of fungal pathogens, and for testing the transmission of seed-borne fungi using test tube agar. Results showed that corn seeds infected by many pathogens included Fusarium, Aspergillus, Nigrospora, Macrophomina and Penicillium sp. To confirm the identification of isolates at the species level, using the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) from rDNA as a barcode, our isolates were similar (99%) to the international isolates. Phylogenetic analysis of five isolates of F. verticillioides revealed correlations between national isolates compared with two international isolates sequenced in GenBank. Evaluation of salicylic acid as a risk-free antifungal chemical against both F. verticillioides and A. niger is also being done. In vitro studies have found salicylic acid to inhibit linear growth from 5 to10 mM. Based on in vivo studies, it helped increase root and shoot system dry weights from 5.6–37.4% and 9.1–59.5%, respectively.