POTENCY OF LOCAL ISOLATE PAECILOMYCES FROM WEST SUMATERA FOR CONTROL OF ROOTKNOT NEMATODES (MELOIDOGYNE SPP) ON VEGETABLES

Abstract

ABSTRACT Paecilomyces is an antagonistic fungus that can be used as a base material for the manufacture of bionematicides for the control of root knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp) because it has antagonistic activity as a nematode egg parasite. Utilization of Paecilomyces local isolates has good potentials for the control of parasitic nematodes, especially root knot nematodes. The environmental conditions of fungal isolates affect the ability of fungi in parasitizing nematode eggs. The objective of the study was to obtain local isolate of Paecilomyces fungi which have high potential to control root knot nematodes. Fungal samples were from soil rhizosphere of tomato plants infected by root knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp) from several locations of vegetable production centers of West Sumatra, namely Alahan Panjang, Agam and Tanah Datar. As results of the research, 10 isolates of Paecilomyces fungi were obtained, 3 isolates from Alahan Panjang (PAP1, PAP2, and PAP3), 3 isolates from Agam (PA1, PA2, and PA3) and 4 isolates from Tanah Datar (PTD1, PTD2. PTD3 and PTD4). All Paecilomyces isolates had potency to control root knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp) with suppression percentage ranged from 55% - 70.9%. The PAP 2 (isolate from Alahan Panjang) had the best ability to control root knot nematodes with suppression percentage of 70.90%.