Ecological Biodiversity Measurement of Seed Mycoflora Contamination of Freshly Harvested in Maize Growing Zone-II

Abstract

Maize is considered third most important cereal crops in the world. In our study the seed mycoflora of freshly harvested maize of zone-II were isolated by Agar plate method (APM) and Blotter plate method (BPM). A total of 9 genera i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Bipolaris maydis, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium verticilioides, Penicillium notatum, P. expensum, Rhizopus stolonifer, and Rhizoctonia solani were isolated by standard Agar plate method and 10 fungal genera, i.e. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Bipolaris maydis, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium verticilioides, Macrophomina phaseolina, Penicillium notatum, Rhizopus stolonifer, and Rhizoctonia solani by blotter plate method. On the basis of density, frequency and abundance, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and Rhizopus stolonifer were found as dominate and taken for detail study. The seed lot of this zone is three categories i.e. Original (OS), Partial discolour (PDS) and Discolour seed (DS). Maximum important value index (IVI), Simpson index of dominance (D), Shannon-Weaver index of diversity (H) and Evenness (E) of Aspergillus flavus OS (86.657%, 0.0834, 0.359, 0.184), PDS (63.827%, 0.0453, 0.329, 0.150) and DS (83.467%, 0.0774, 0.356, 0.183) were contributed. In Blotter plate method, highest density of A. niger OS (5.850), A. flavus PDS (4.500), DS (5.225) were recorded. Maximum frequency showed by A. flavus (100.000%) in all categories. The abundance of A. flavus OS (0.350), PDS (0.342), DS (0.407) were recorded. Relative density maximum recorded in A. niger OS (26.401%), A. flavus PDS (19.268%) and DS (26.381%). Relative frequency (RF) and relative abundance (RA) highest were found in A. flavus OS (24.691%, 35.009%), PDS (23.256%, 34.221%) and DS (23.810%, 40.661%). Maximum IVI, Simpson index of dominance, Shannon-Weaver index of diversity and evenness contributed A. flavus OS (80.912%, 0.0727, 0.353, 0.170), PDS (76.744%, 0.0654, 0.349, 0.159) and DS (90.852 %, 0.0917, 0.362, 0.174). These species are some of the common on the maize during storage and spoil the grains.