Antagonistic activity of Trichoderma sp. against Bipolaris sp.

• Main Author: Mandapat, Joseph B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2016
• Subjects: Trichoderma; Fungicides; Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/3015
• Institution: De La Salle University

Agriculture has always played an important role in the Philippines, for it greatly sustains our economy and provides crops, which provides food for consumption for the entire country. Bipolaris sp. is a common pathogenic fungus, which is prevalent in tropical countries and is responsible for spotting on crops such as rice and corn. This disease could decrease the crops productivity and death of the host all-together. As a result, there would be a decrease of total crop yield during harvest. Fungicides have been utilized to limit the activity of these pathogens with great success on the other hand, fungicides have adverse side effects to surrounding environment. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of a commonly known biocontrol agent, Trichoderma sp., in fighting off Bipolaris sp., as an alternative for chemical fungicides. A dual culture plate method was used where a strain of Trichoderma sp. and Bipolaris sp. was inoculated with a 3-mm cork borer into a separate petri dish with potato dextrose agar. The plugs were placed on opposite ends, 2 cm away from the perimeter of the plate and were incubated at 25°C for 7 days, with measurements done on days 5 and 7. Results showed that Bipolaris sp. had a zone of inhibition of 40.97% on day 5-post inoculation and 39.14% on day 7- post inoculation when exposed to Trichoderma sp., with a statistically significant difference in radius between the two groups on both days using t-test. This shows that Trichoderma sp. is an effective biocontrol agent, which can limit the activity and growth of Bipolaris sp. Furthermore, a confirmatory test was performed through the reinoculation of Bipolaris sp. in all trials, a regrowth of the pathogen in the new agar plates revealed, that Trichoderma sp. has a fungistatic effect.