Isolation, Identification and Molecular Characterization of Pathogenic Fungus causing bud Rot Disease to Coconut: Its Inhibition using Silkworm Fecal Matter Mediated Synthesized Silver and Copper Nanoparticles

Abstract

Coconut is one the major economic crop in India; a considerable amount of crop will be lost every year due to bud rot disease. Phytophthora palmivora is an omnipresent pathogen which causes many different diseases on a wide range of plants including bud rot of coconut. In the present investigation, we have successfully isolated bud rot disease causing fungus from the infected coconut plant samples. The isolated fungus was primarily identified by observing in microscopy further the same sample was sent for molecular identification. The presence of Phytophthora palmivora was confirmed in 18s rRNA sequencing. The growth of isolated fungus was effectively inhibited using biosynthesized Silver and Copper nanoparticles. The inhibition effects of nanoparticles against Phytophthora palmivora were observed excellent in dose-dependent manner. The silver nanoparticles synthesized using Silkworm fecal matter was shown superior inhibition activity towards Phytophthora palmivora compare to standard fungicide Fluconazole. Hence, these silver Nano particles could be successfully used in inhibiting the pathogenic fungus causing bud rot disease to coconut.