Prospects of endophytic fungal entomopathogens as biocontrol and plant growth promoting agents: an insight on how artificial inoculation methods affect endophytic colonization of host plants

Publication date: Available online 31 August 2018Source: Microbiological ResearchAuthor(s): Bamisope Steve Bamisile, Chandra Kanta Dash, Komivi Senyo Akutse, Ravindran Keppanan, Oluwatoyin Grace Afolabi, Mubasher Hussain, Muhammad Qasim, Liande WangAbstractEntomopathogenic fungi (EPF) can be established as endophytes in the host plants to offer a long-term preventive measure for pests and diseases. This practice serves as a better alternative to the common practice of periodic direct application of EPF on plants or the target pests as a short-term defense strategy against pests and diseases. These fungal endophytes, aside from their role in pests and diseases prevention, also act as plant growth promoters. Several fungal endophytes have been associated with improvement in plant height, dry and wet weight and other growth parameters. However, many limiting factors have been identified as mitigating the successful colonization of the host plants by EPF. The inoculation methods used have been identified as one, but sadly, this has received little or less attention.Some previous studies carried out comparison between various artificial inoculation methods; foliar application, seedling dipping, soil drenching, seed inoculation, direct injection and others. In separate studies, some authors had suggested different application methods that are best suitable for certain fungal entomopathogens. For instance, leaf inoculation with conidial suspensions was suggested to be the best inocu...
Source: Microbiological Research - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research