Seeds infection of Fusarium moniliforme in different Rice varieties grown in mid-hills of Nepal

Abstract

Fusarium moniliforme is one of the important seed-borne fungi responsible for foot rot disease in rice. The study was conducted at the Plant Pathology Division of NARC, Khumaltar from July- December 2019 to find out the level of seed infection of F. moniliforme in different varieties of rice from mid-hills of Nepal. A total of 20 seed samples of different varieties of rice with 240 seeds of each sample were tested following a deep-freeze blotter method distributing 80 seeds per replication and maintaining 3 replications. Seed to seedling transmission test was carried out under screen house conditions. Two hundred seeds of each highly infected five varieties from laboratory test data were planted in eight pots, twenty-five seeds per pot, and categorized into four replications. Component plating was done to determine the location of F. moniliforme infection in a seed. Data analysis was done using STAR at a 5% level of significance. There was a significant difference among all the varieties. The highest incidence of F. moniliforme infection was found in seeds of Khumal-9 variety and lowest in Fan-10 variety. From seed to seedling transmission test, Khumal-4 variety was found highly susceptible to foot rot among the 5 varieties planted. Transmission percentage of disease from seed to seedling was found ranging from 16.19-72.31%. Equally, Component plating concludes that seed coat, as well as endosperm, was the location of F. moniliforme infection in rice seed. Foot rot being one of the serious diseases of rice at present time researches should be done more on this for its effective management and control. Seed health status testification before taking seeds to the field should be done so that timely control like seed treatment could be applied to control the outbreak of the disease in the field.