2.6. Isolation, identification and quantification of fungi from maize
silk and kernels
Silk samples were homogenized with a T10 Ultra-Turrax (IKA),
and kernels were milled and homogenized with a Grindomix
GM200 (Retsch). Mycological analyses were performed with serial
dilutions from 101 to 106
. For each dilution an aliquot of 0.5 ml
was spread on a PDA plate. Five replicates for each dilution were
done. Plates were incubated for seven days at 25 C and colonies
were identified as previously described. The number of developed
colonies was counted.
Data represent fungal colonization of silk and kernels (CFU∙g1
)
and each value is the average ± standard error (SE) of three replicates.
A reduction occurred in F. verticillioides levels in treated
plants compared to the untreated ones and was expressed according
to the following ratio:
Re