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Abstract

The utilization of Trichoderma harzianum (Hypocreales: Hypocreaceae) as a biological control agent against plant pathogenic fungi has gained extensive recognition in the field of agriculture. Fusarium solani (Hypocreales: Nectriaceae) is a pathogen that causes damping-off in corn plants and poses a significant global challenge to corn farmers. This study aimed to investigate the potential management of damping-off disease caused by F. solani in three varieties of corn, utilizing T. harzianum in conjunction with the semi in-planta method. It was demonstrated that both in vitro and semi in-planta T. harzianum treatments had the ability to suppress damping-off disease in corn varieties. The in vitro test revealed that T. harzianum can suppress F. solani through mechanisms such as mycoparasitism and inhibition. The semi in-planta assay showed an interaction between the plant varieties infected with F. solani and T. harzianum. The semi-in planta assay confirmed that F. solani can cause both pre-emergence and post-emergence damping-off diseases, with pre-emergence symptoms including seed death. Seed death occurred in GARS 1 and MADURA 3 varieties, while PERTIWI 6 variety was affected by post-emergence damping-off. Fight-and-flight responses of F. solani and T. harzianum were observed in PERTIWI 6. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of T. harzianum treatments in managing damping-off diseases in corn plants. The semi in-planta method was used to study the interaction between the pathogen, bio-agents, and plants, and confirmed the presence of a fight-and-flight response.

Keywords

Biological agents, Fight-and-flight response, Maize, Mycoparasitism, Seed death

Subject Area

Biology

Article Type

Article

First Page

2273

Last Page

2289

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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