Brinjal Plants Research Articles

Evaluation of persistence and effectiveness of bacterial cell suspensions and culture filtrates against M. incognita on brinjal

Keeping in view the staid health and ecological apprehensions coupled with the use of pesticides, entomopathogenic nematodes have the potential to supersede pesticides for the management of various pests. Brinjal plants are the most seriously affected by Meloidogyne incognita. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the persistence effectiveness of bacterial cell suspensions (Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus spp.) and their culture filtrates in soil up to 7, 14 and 21 days and their response against M. incognita as a source of biological control for nematode management. In a life cycle study, Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus spp., isolated from Steinernema asiaticum and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, were proved more effective in influencing the life cycle of RKNs. It was found that all the treatments of bacterial cell suspensions and their culture filtrates at all persistent times proved effective in reducing the number of females and egg masses as compared to control. It delayed penetration of nematode juveniles (J2) into host roots. It was concluded that persistence effectiveness of bacteria and their metabolites decreased in soil with time.

CHARACTERIZATION OF DEVASTATING PHYTOPATHOGEN RALSTONIA SOLANACEARUM FROM WILT INFECTED BRINJAL PLANTS FROM MIZORAM, INDIA

Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne gram-negative bacterium that causes bacterial wilt disease in more than 250 plant species belonging to botanical families. Over the last decades, R. solanacearum infestation has increasingly been observed in temperate climate regions. Three R. solanacearum isolates have been obtained from wilt infected brinjal (eggplant) plant from Mizoram, North East India. Different morphological and biochemical testes confirmed the typical characteristic features of bacterial wilt pathogen. Amplification of 280bp DNA fragment in PCR with (759,760) egl gene primer, further confirmed the existence of Ralstonia solanacearum pathogen in North East India.

Effectiveness of some Antagonistic Fungi and Botanicals against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici Infecting Brinjal and Tomato Plants

Effectiveness of some Antagonistic Fungi and Botanicals against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici Infecting Brinjal and Tomato Plants

Induced defense response in brinjal plants by Bacillus megaterium NBAII 63 against bacterial wilt pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum

Bacillus megaterium strain NBAII 63 was identified as a potential bacterial antagonist against brinjal bacterial wilt pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum . It was tested for its ability to induce defense related enzymes viz., peroxidase (PO), polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and total phenols against R. solanacearum in brinjal plants. Brinjal plants treated with B. megaterium challenge inoculated with R. solanacearum showed higher levels of defense related enzymes and phenols compared to antagonist alone, pathogen alone and untreated plants. B. megaterium strain NBAII 63 showed the higher activities of total phenols (173 μg g-1 of tissue compared to control 121), PO (2.75 change in OD min-1g-1 of tissue compared to control 0.75) and PPO activity (0.91 change in OD min-1g-1 compared to control 0.13) in brinjal plants treated with R. solanacearum. The present study clearly indicated that B. megaterium strain NBAII 63 has the ability to induce the defense related enzymes in the brinjal plants against R. solanacearum .

Assessment of Factors Influencing the Agrobacterium-mediated in planta Seed Transformation of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

An efficient and reproducible in planta transformation method was developed for brinjal using seed as an explant. The brinjal seeds were infected with Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA 105 harbouring pCAMBIA 1301-bar plasmid, and the transformants were selected against BASTA®. Several parameters influencing the in planta seed transformation such as pre-culture duration, acetosyringone concentration, surfactants, duration of sonication, vacuum pressure and vacuum duration have been evaluated. The putatively transformed (T 0) brinjal plants were screened by GUS histochemical analysis. Among the different combinations and concentrations tested, when the 18-h pre-cultured brinjal seeds were sonicated for 20min and vacuum infiltered for 3min at 500mm of Hg in Agrobacterium suspension containing 100μM acetosyringone, 0.2% Silwett L-77 favoured the Agrobacterium infection and showed maximum transformation efficiency. Among the five brinjal varieties evaluated, Arka Samhitha showed maximum transformation efficiency at 45.66%. The transgene was successfully transmitted to progeny plants (T 1) which was evidenced by GUS histochemical analysis, polymerase chain reaction and Southern hybridisation. The in planta protocol developed in the present study would be beneficial to transfer the economically and nutritionally important genes into different varieties of brinjal, and the transgenic brinjal plants can be produced in less time (approximately 27days).

Effect of Botanical Extract on Pest Control in Brinjal Field

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of eight botanical extracts on pest control in brinjal field. Accordingly, water extracts of dried leaves of Khuksa (Ficus hispida), Chotra (Lantana sp.), Chirata (Swietia chrata), Neem (Azadiracta indica), Bael (Aegle marmelos), Holde-hurhuri (Cleomp viscosa) and Marigold (Targetes erecta) and seeds of Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) were prepared and sprayed in experimental brinjal field at Rajshahi University. Out of these botanicals, Khuksha leaves extract showed best performance against the pest attack compare to other extracts. Marigold leaf extract also showed good performance in the protection of brinjal plant from pest. The efficacy of Chotra, and Chirata leaf extracts was nearly same in brinjal plot against the pest attack. Neem leaf extracts showed moderate performance against pest. Mahogany seed extract showed lowest efficacy and hampered the normal plant growth and caused fruit rottening as well as reduced the yield of brinjal. Although Khuksha, Beal and Marigold leaf extracts were found effective against brinjal pests but a higher production was observed in the treatments of Neem and Chirata leaf extracts in experimental brinjal field.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jesnr.v5i2.14809 J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 5(2): 173-176 2012

Effect of Nutrient and Pre-Infested Brinjal, Solanum Melongena by Whitefly and Aphid on Population Dynamics of Whitefly, Bemisia Tabaci

This study investigated the consequence of nutrient concentration levels and pre-infestation of brinjal (Solanum melongena) plant (by whitefly and aphids) on population of whitefly (Aleyrodidae; Hemiptera) over two cropping periods. Both factors, nutrient levels and pre-infestation by pests could also change plant-pest relationship especially with herbi-vorous insect pests. Variation in nutrient levels applied to the plants could influence different physiological performance of the plants which subsequently affected whitefly population. Populations of whitefly were higher following increasing levels of nutrients in non-pre-infested (control) plants. Lower whitefly populations were observed on whitefly pre-infested brinjal plants compared to aphid pre-infested and control plants. Pre-infested plants were suspected to induce productions of sec-ondary metabolites as a chemical defense system thus lowering the number of whiteflies on them. Considering other man-agement technique in controlling whiteflies on brinjal such as optimum nutrient supplement as plant growth progress and good pest care during seedling stage was proposed.

Antagonistic effect of Biofertilizers against Seed Born Mycoflora of Brinjal (Solanum melongena)

The present study was carried out to evaluate the response of bofertilizers and benomyl on seed mycoflora of brinjal plant. Untreated seeds were collected from local market, and treated with biofertilizer alone and in combination form. The seed mycoflora of brinjal was screened by using potato dextrose agar (PDA), rose bengal agar (RBA), czapex dox agar (CDA) media. The result indicates that maximum six genera of fungi were identified on PDA followed by RBA and CDA media. The untreated seeds were found to be associated with highest percent incidence of mycoflora and minimum population was recorded in the treatment of Cyanbacteria (Cy) alone followed by Benomyl (Ben), Cyanobacteria and Rhizobium (Cy+Rhz), Rhizobium (Rhz), and control (Con).

Population abundance of red spider mite in different vegetables along with its spatial distribution and chemical control in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Population abundance of red spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch., was studied in cucmber, ribbed gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd, aroids and teasle gourd and efficacy of four new acaricides were tested against this pest in brinjal at the farmer’s field of Norsingdi during 2009-2010. At the same time, the spatial distribution of this pest in brinjal crop was also studied. Results indicated that all the surveyed vegetables except bitter gourd were attacked by the mite with varying levels of infestation. However, the highest mite population per leaf was observed in brinjal (32.27) which was followed by cucumber (16.08) and teasle gourd (7.2). Mites were most densely populated in the lower canopy region in the brinjal plant. Among the tested acaricides, Lakad 1.8 EC (Abamectin) provided the highest (83.4%) reduction of mite population over control, although the other acaricides also gave good control of this pest. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 37(3): 399-404, September 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v37i3.12083

Influence of salicylic acid and Glomus fasciculatum on fusarial wilt of tomato and brinjal

Wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici and wilt of brinjal caused by Fusarium solani are very common in different agricultural fields of West Bengal, India. The study on the effect of salicylic acid (SA) on in vitro growth of the pathogens revealed that SA completely checks the growth at 0.7 mM concentration and above. On the other hand, the percentage of mycorrhisation in the host plants with an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, Glomus fasciculatum was found to be decreased in the presence of SA in the plants with or without pathogenic infection. Treatment of tomato and brinjal plants either singly with AM fungus or with SA (0.5 and 1.0 mM) and also with their combined treatment showed amelioration of plant height, length of root, fresh weight of root and fresh weight of plants. However, the AM fungus-treated plants showed highest growth responses. The result also reveals that integrated treatment with AM plus SA has significant effect on reduction of infection where application of AM + SA (1.0 mM) resulted in 67.16 and 69.70% reduction of fusarial wilt infection in tomato and brinjal plants, respectively.

First report of a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ (16SrI group) associated with little leaf disease of Solanum melongena (brinjal) in India

During November 2007, brinjal little leaf (BLL) symptoms (Fig. 1) were observed in approximately 20% of the brinjal ( Solanum melongena ) plants growing in the fields of Bihar, India, leading to the suspicion of a phytoplasma infection. To…

Multilocus sequence analysis of phytoplasma associated with brinjal little leaf disease and its detection inHishimonus phycitisin India

Brinjal little leaf is a phytoplasmas-associated disease widespread in India that induces severe economic losses in the crop. In this study phytoplasmas infecting brinjal plants in New Delhi, India were characterized by RFLP analysis and DNA sequencing of 16S rRNA, ribosomal protein rpl22, secA and 23S rRNA genes. Collective actual and virtual RFLP patterns, sequence analysis and sequence based phylogenetic analysis of the studied loci showed that the phytoplasma associated with brinjal little leaf disease in New Delhi, India is a member of 16SrVI-D subgroup. PCR amplification and sequencing of 16S rRNA of phytoplasma from Hishimonus phycitis confirmed that the phytoplasma in vector is molecularly indistinguishable from the one in the host plant.

Plant toxic and non-toxic nature of organic dyes through adsorption mechanism on cellulose surface

Effluents releasing from dyeing industries directly affect the soil, water, plant and human life. Among these dyes, plant poisoning, soil polluting and water polluting nature of organic dyes are not yet identified. The plant poisoning and non-poisoning organic dyes are identified through adsorption mechanism of cationic malachite green (MG) and anionic methyl orange (MO) on brinjal plant root powder (cellulose). The positive Δ H o (44 kJ mol −1) of MG higher than 40 kJ mol −1 confirmed the adsorption of MG on cellulose is chemisorption and the negative Δ H o (−11 kJ mol −1) less than 40 kJ mol −1 showed that the adsorption of MO on cellulose is physisorption. The Δ G o values for the adsorption of MG and MO on BPR are not much increased with increase of temperature which indicated that the adsorption is independent of the temperature. The entropy change for the adsorption of MG and MO has proved that the MG (+ΔS o) has less disorder at the adsorption interface and MO (−ΔS o) has the high disorder at the adsorption interface. The recovery of both dyes has been studied in water at 80 °C on BPR surface and observed that the MO recovery is 95% and MG is 10%. The poor desorption of MG is due to the strong chemisorption on BPR (cellulose) surface proves its plant poisoning nature. The high recovery of MO due to physisorption mechanism proves that MO is not poisoning the plant.

STUDIES ON THE EFFICACY OF NEEM AND FUNGAL ISOLATES ON MELOIDOGYNE INCOGNITA INFESTING SOLANUM MELONGENA L.

A study was conducted under pot conditions to testify the efficacy of neem seedpowder; neem leaf powder and 2 fungal isolates, Trichoderma harzianum and T. glaucumto estimate pathogenicity of M. incognita infesting Solanum melongena. The freshlyhatched second stage juveniles (J2) inoculated @ 2000J2/pot and neem seed powder,neem leaves powder and fungal isolates T. harzianum and T. glaucum, were applied @0.2%. The observations of the study revealed that the infested brinjal plants showedmaximum root gall formation and decrease in root and shoot length as well astheir fresh and dry weight with the increase in levels of infestations as comparedto control. It was also observed that the brinjal plants amended with neem seedpowder separately and with a combination of neem seed powder and T. harzianumshowed better growth and significant reduction in gall formation (54.19% & 49.36%respectively) over untreated inoculated plants.

Population Ecology of Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Brinjal

Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), a common insect feeding on plants, belongs to the family Aleyrodidae of the orderHomoptera. The quantity of food source especially brinjal, is one of the major factors that has attracted whitefly in thearea. In fact, the flight ability of whitefly enables them to search for food quickly. Thus could encourage whitefly toreproduce in great numbers and subsequently cause severe infestation in the fields. Many farmers are not interested togrow brinjal after they have gone through some bad experience due to some whitefly infestations, which have resulted ina total crop loss of brinjal fruits. At present, information on the population dynamics of whiteflies locally on brinjal is stilllacking. Henceforth, these studies are indeed appropriate to generate a comprehensive understanding on the insectpopulation, which could support an effective pest management programme and crop improvement strategy. The studywas conducted at the Field Laboratory of the Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam. Thestudy on the population of whitefly larvae on brinjal plants covered all the plant strata except for the upper stratum. Thepopulations of whitefly were aggregated (Taylor’s Power Law Calculate) in first and second cropping of brinjal plants. Itmay be concluded that the total number of whitefly larvae were found to be most abundant in the middle stratum of thebrinjal plants.

Analysis of atrazine and its degradation products in loamy soil by SPE and HPLC

The degradation and leaching of atrazine and its degradation products (hydroxyatrazine, desethylatrazine, deisopropylatarzine and didealkylatrazine) were studied into loamy soil. An agriculture soil field (50 × 50 sq. feet with brinjal plants) was selected and atrazine spray was carried out once in a year. The irrigation of this plot was carried out once in a month. The sampling of soil was carried out at different depths after every two months. The extraction and the analysis of these pesticides were carried out by SPE and HPLC respectively. The degradation and leaching of these pesticides have been reported into loamy soil. The degradation and leaching are controlled by various factors such as irrigation process, pH of water, temperature etc.

Neem leaves as a source of fertilizer-cum-pesticide vermicompost

Vermicomposting of neem ( Azadirachta indica A. Juss) was accomplished in ‘high-rate’ reactors operated at the earthworm ( Eudrilus eugeniae) densities of 62.5 and 75 animals per litre of reactor volume. Contrary to the fears that neem––a powerful nematicide––might not be palatable to the annelids, the earthworms fed voraciously on the neem compost, converting upto 7% of the feed into vermicompost per day. Indeed the worms grew faster and reproduced more rapidly in the neem-fed vermireactors than in the reactors fed with mango leaf litter earlier studied by the authors (Gajalakshmi et al., 2003). Another set of experiments on the growth, flowering, and fruition of brinjal ( Solanum melongena) plants with and without fertilization with vermicompost, revealed that the vermicompost had a significantly beneficial impact.

Chlorophyll Contents of Brinjal Plants Influencing the Resistance and Susceptibility to Brinjal Shoot and Fruit Borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee

Chlorophyll Contents of Brinjal Plants Influencing the Resistance and Susceptibility to Brinjal Shoot and Fruit Borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee

Plant disease suppression and growth promotion by a fluorescent Pseudomonas strain.

An antibiotic- and siderophore-producing Pseudomonas strain isolated from virgin soils (with forest trees) displayed in vitro antibiosis against many plant pathogenic fungi. The presence of iron had no effect on this in vitro antibiosis. Seed bacterization improved germination, shoot height, root length, fresh and dry mass, enhanced yield and chlorophyll content of leaves in the five test crop plants under field conditions. Seed bacterization also reduced the number of infected brinjal plants grown in soil infested with Rhizoctonia solani. The strain produced a yellowish green siderophore in the standard succinate medium and both siderophore and a yellow viscous antibiotic compound in King's B medium. The results confirmed that the plant growth promotion was due to siderophore production whereas the disease suppression was due to the antibiotic substance.

Effects of Moisture Stress and Anti‐transpirants on Leaf Chlorophyll,

Brinjal plants (Solanum melongena L.) grown under moisture stress conditions in a glasshouse were treated with three anti‐transpirants, namely cycocel, limewash and potassium chloride, to study their influence on chlorophyll content, soluble protein and photosynthetic rate. Moisture stress imposed at each of the three growth stages decreased chlorophyll content, soluble protein and photosynthetic rate. Of the anti‐transpirants investigated, cycocel performed better than limewash and po‐tassium chloride.