Antagonistic activities against plant pathogenic fungi
The antagonistic effects of endophytic bacteria were tested
against four fungal plant pathogens viz., Sclerotium rolfsii,
Pythium sp., Fusarium oxysporum and Colletotrichum
capsici. For this the bacterial isolates were streaked at a
distance of 3.5 cm from the rim of individual Petri dishes
containing potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. A 6-mm
mycelial disc from a 7-day-old PDA culture of fungal
pathogens was then placed on the other side of the Petri
dish and the plates were incubated at 28°C for 4 days. The
percent inhibition was calculated by using the formula:
I=(C − T)/C×100, where I is the percent inhibition of
mycelial growth over the control, C is mycelial growth of
fungal pathogen in the control plate and T is mycelial growth
of fungus in endophytic bacteria inoculated plate. The
experiment was carried out in three independent replicates