Effect of fungal egg parasite, Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thom.) Samson on Meloidogyne incognita in brinjal

Abstract

Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thorn) Samson is a potentially important fungal biocontrol agent capable of parasitizing nematode eggs, juveniles and females and reported to control a range of nematode species on a number of crops worldwide (Khan et al., 1997). The present study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of P.lilacinus as nursery treatment alone, mainfield treatment in combination with farm yard manure and combination of both nursery and main field treatments against root-knot nematode in brinjal. Management trials in brinjal (var. Haritha) were laid out at College of Agriculture, Vellayani in nematode infested sick plots having initial population of 200 to 325 Meloidogyne incognita larvae per 200 g of soil. IIHR strains of P. lilacinus obtained from NBAII, Bangalore were used for the study. Nursery beds of brinjal (1X1 m) were prepared and P.lilacinus (2x10 6 cfu) was applied @ 50g/m 2 in nursery plots. Carbosulfan @ 5g/m 2 served as check. One month old seedlings were transplanted in mainfield (3X3 m plots) at a spacing of 75X60 cm. Main field treatments were application of P.lilacinus @ 2.5 kg along with 2.5t farmyard manure/ha, P. lilacinus @ 5 kg along with 2.5t farmyard manure/ha and application of farmyard manure @2.5t/ha alone. In combined treatments the bioagent was applied both in nursery and mainfield. Experiment was laid out in RBD with 8 treatments, each replicated thrice. The results were assessed in terms of plant height, number of leaves and branches, yield and nematode population. Nematode population in soil was estimated by Cobb's sieving and decanting technique followed by Baermann's funnel technique (Southey,

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Weather factors Macroposthonia Helicotylenchus Tylenchorhynchus M. graminicola Hirschmanniella
Soil temperature (oC) 0.281 0.943** 0.910** 0.914** 0.514
Soil moisture (%) 0.616* 0.767** 0.764** 0.756** 0.752**
Rainfall (mm) 0.281 0.895** 0.830** 0.824** 0.312
** Significant at 1% level *significant at 5% level
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Effect of Fungal Egg Parasite, Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thom.) Samson on
Meloidogyne incognita in Brinjal
M.S. NISHA AND M.S. SHEELA
Department of Entomology, Kerala Agricultural University, College of Agriculture, Vellayani-695522, India
*Corresponding author; E-mail: drnishams@gmail.com
Received on 29-04-2015, Revised on 30-06-2016 and Accepted on 15-07-2016
Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thorn) Samson is a
potentially important fungal biocontrol agent capable of
parasitizing nematode eggs, juveniles and females and
reported to control a range of nematode species on a
number of crops worldwide (Khan et al., 1997). The
present study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of
P.lilacinus as nursery treatment alone, mainfield treatment
in combination with farm yard manure and combination
of both nursery and main field treatments against root-
knot nematode in brinjal.
Management trials in brinjal (var. Haritha) were
laid out at College of Agriculture, Vellayani in nematode
infested sick plots having initial population of 200 to 325
Meloidogyne incognita larvae per 200 g of soil. IIHR
strains of P. lilacinus obtained from NBAII, Bangalore
were used for the study. Nursery beds of brinjal (1X1 m)
were prepared and P.lilacinus (2x106 cfu) was applied
@ 50g/m2 in nursery plots. Carbosulfan @ 5g/m2 served
as check. One month old seedlings were transplanted in
mainfield (3X3 m plots) at a spacing of 75X60 cm. Main
field treatments were application of P.lilacinus @ 2.5 kg
along with 2.5t farmyard manure/ha, P. lilacinus @ 5
kg along with 2.5t farmyard manure/ha and application of
farmyard manure @2.5t/ha alone. In combined treatments
the bioagent was applied both in nursery and mainfield.
Experiment was laid out in RBD with 8 treatments, each
replicated thrice. The results were assessed in terms of
plant height, number of leaves and branches, yield and
nematode population. Nematode population in soil was
estimated by Cobb’s sieving and decanting technique
followed by Baermann’s funnel technique (Southey,

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1986). The data generated were subjected to analysis of
variance (ANOVA).
Results of the trial revealed that application of
P.lilacinus (2X106cfu) @ 50g/m2 brinjal in nursery beds
was effective in producing vigorous seedlings with least
root galling. In main field, all the treatments showed
statistically significant variation in reducing the nematode
population in soil. The lowest nematode population in soil
was recorded in combined nursery application of P.
lilacinus @ 50g/m2 + mainfield application of P. lilacinus
@5kg along with 2.5t farm yard manure/ha at the time
of harvest (Table 1). This treatment was statistically at
par with nursery application of P. lilacinus @ 50g/m2 +
mainfield application of P. lilacinus @ 2.5 kg along with
2.5t FYM/ha and carbosulfan. The percentage reduction
in nematode population over the untreated in the above
Table 1. Effect of different treatments on the biometric characters, yield and nematode population characteristics in brinjal
Treatments Height of Weight of Weight of No. of Weight of No. of Nematode Nematode
plant (cm) shoot (g) root (g) Fruits/ plot Fruits (kg) galls (10g) population population
(5g) root in soil (200g)
T1160.00 450.00 250.00 100.00 5.25 104.65 78.32 149.08
(10.23) (8.85) (12.21)
T2154.33 516.67 303.33 121.00 6.33 61.15 41.35 69.06
(7.85) (6.43) (8.31)
T3158.33 541.67 273.33 121.67 6.58 30.14 32.72 72.93
(5.49) (5.72) (8.54)
T4 (T1 + T2) 191.67 660.00 325.00 160.00 8.92 8.70 3.46 7.18
(2.95) (1.86) (2.68)
T5 (T1 + T3) 213.33 758.33 368.33 176.67 9.92 4.54 3.20 3.06
(2.13) (1.79) (1.75)
T6184.00 576.67 341.67 140.00 7.75 9.24 5.48 12.89
(3.04) (2.34) (3.59)
T7131.67 411.67 225.00 99.33 5.13 139.24 92.54 272.25
(11.80) (9.62) (16.50)
T8- Untreated 110.00 388.33 188.33 93.33 5.00 251.22 116.21 369.02
(15.85) (10.78) (19.21)
CD ( 0.05 ) 22.83 56.54 36.51 30.42 0.95 (2.17) (3.69) (2.08)
T1= P.lilacinus (cfu 2×106 ) @50g /m2 in nursery bed; T2= P. lilacinus (cfu 2×106) @ 2.5 kg along with 2.5 t of FYM , in the main
field prior to planting; T3= P. lilacinus (cfu 2×106) @ 5kg along with 2.5 t of FYM in the main field prior to planting; T4= T1 + T2;
T5= T1 + T3; T6= Application of carbosulfan @ 0.3 ga.i./m2 in the nursery before sowing; T7- 2.5 t of FYM /ha in the main field prior
to planting; T8= Untreated, Values in the parenthesis are after square root transformation
treatments ranged from 97 to 99 percent. Similar trend
was observed in the case of root population also. The
percentage reduction in nematode population over the
untreated ranged from 95 to 97 per cent. Regarding the
number of galls, the lowest number (2.13 per 10 g root)
was observed in nusery application of P. lilacinus@
50g/m2 + mainfield application of P. lilacinus @5kg
along with 2.5t farm yard manure/ha . It was equally
effective to nursery application of P .lilacinus @ 50 g/
m2 + main field application of P.lilacinus @2.5 kg along
with 2.5 t FYM/ha (2.95 per 5g root) and carbosulfan
(3.04 per 5g root). The percentage reduction in root-knot
count in these three treatments over the untreated
ranged from 96 to 98 per cent. Several workers reported
the potential of P.lilacinus in suppressing the population
of M . incognita in crops viz. okra (Dhawan et al.,
2004), banana (Sundararaju and Kiruthika, 2009) and

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tomato (Sabet et al., 2013). In this study the potential of
P. lilacinus was boosted by combining with partially
decomposed farm yard manure as evidenced by the
result on reduction in M . incognita population in soil and
roots. The beneficial effect of FYM for boosting the
potential of egg parasitic fungus P. lilacinus established
in this study is in agreement with Rao et al. (2013) who
reported that nursery bed treatment @50g P.lilacinus /
m2 and mainfield application of FYM (5t/ha) enriched
with 5 kg P.lilacinus / ha significantly reduced nematode
population in tomato.
All the treatments except farmyard manure were
significantly better than the untreated in improving
biometric characters of brinjal. Regarding the plant
height, effect of the combined nursery application of P.
lilacinus @50g/m2 + main field application of P.lilacinus
@5kg along with 2.5 t FYM/ha (213.33 cm) was
statistically at par with nursery application of P. lilacinus
@ 50g/m2+mainfield application of P.lilacinus @2.5 kg
along with 2.5t FYM/ha (191.67 cm). In the case of
number of leaves, nursery application of P.lilacinus
@50g/m2+mainfield application of P.lilacinus @5kg
along with 2.5t FYM/ha, nursery application of P.lilacinus
@50g/m2+mainfield application of P.lilacinus @2.5 kg
along with 2.5t FYM/ha and carbosulfan were statisically
at par giving 74 to 95 per cent increase over the
untreated. The combined nursery application of
P.lilacinus @50g/m2+ main field application of
P.lilacinus @5kg along with 2.5t FYM/ha showed
significant superiority over all other treatments in
improving the number of branches and weight of shoot
giving 96 and 95 per cent increase over the untreated,
respectively. The weight of root in the combined nursery
application of P. lilacinus @ 50g/m2 + mainfield
application of P. lilacinus @ 5kg along with 2.5t FYM/
ha was recorded maximum and it was found equally
effective to the check treatment, carbosulfan. The
improvement in biometric characters was directly
reflected in the yield of brinjal in terms of number and
weight of fruits. In the case of weight of fruits, the
treatment combination nursery application of P. lilacinus
@ 50g/m2 + main field application of P. lilacinus @ 5kg
along with 2.5t farm yard manure/ha established its
superiority over all other treatments giving 98 percent
increase over the untreated. The treatment combined
treatment of P. lilacinus @ 50g/m2 + mainfield
application of P. lilacinus @ 2.5 kg along with 2.5t
FYM/ha was found equally effective to P.lilacinus
@50g/m2 + mainfield application of P. lilacinus @5kg
along with 2.5t farm yard manure/ha in increasing the
number of fruits. The percentage increase in these
treatments ranged from 71 to 89 percent. The effect of
P.lilacinus in improving the plant growth characters and
yield has already been reported by several authors Nisha
and Sheela (2006) in coleus; Rao et al. (2012) in tomato;
Zareena and Das (2014) in brinjal. Highest ICBR ratio
was observed in nursery application of P. lilacinus @
50g/m2 + main field application of P. lilacinus @ 5kg
along with 2.5 ton FYM per ha (1:5.96) followed by
nursery application ofP. lilacinus @ 50g/m2 + main field
application of P. lilacinus @ 2.5kg along with 2.5 ton
FYM/ha (1:4.93). This treatment combination is
environmentally safe and sustainable in nature as
P.lilacinus and farm yard manure will not contribute any
toxic effect in soil and are not detrimental to the beneficial
fauna.
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