BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF A NOVEL BIO-CONTROL AGENT AGAINST NEWLY ISOLATED POST HARVEST FUNGAL PATHOGENS

It is well known that Trichoderma sp. can be used as a biological control agent (BCA). In this study, 02 new Trichoderma isolates were obtained from 35 different soil samples of Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh and its bio-control/antifungal effects were determined against 07 newly isolated postharvest fungal pathogens (PHFP) from 35 different samples of fruits and vegetables collected from storage and selling markets of Chandigarh. In-vitro evaluation of antagonistic activity of only one newly isolated bio-control agent Trichoderma viride (RS1) was done by dual culture method (DCM) and culture filtrate technique (CFT) and compared with the standard BCA, T. viride MTCC 800. Results of CFT were significantly higher than by DCM in case of newly isolated BCA in comparison to standard BCA. Further, a pot experiment was carried out to check the effect of fungal pathogens and bio-control agent on the growth of barley seeds. It was observed that in the presence of BCA alone as well as in combination with PHFP, the negative effect of fungal pathogens reduced and the shoot and root length increased significantly. Also, mutant strain of the newly isolated Trichoderma viride was produced using U.V. radiations, and its antifungal potential was checked by DCM. It was observed that in all the cases except two, the mutant strain showed best antifungal potential as compared to the wild type as well as the standard BCA T. v. MTCC 800.