Screening for Potential Biocontrol Agents Against Banana Fusarium Wilt
ENTRY NO. 11
INTRODUCTION
Fusarium wilt of banana (Musa spp.), also known as Panama disease, is caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc, E.F. Smith) Snyder and Hansen. To date, it is one of the most deadly fungal diseases of banana that invades the roots then the vascular tissue (xylem), which will cause gradual wilting, progressive yellowing of banana leaves (spreads from leaf margins, and from older leaves to younger leaves), leading to collapse at the petiole, and longitudinal splitting of the outer leaf sheaths in the pseudostem (Yin et al., 2011). In 2006, its appearance in the Philippines was first confirmed in Davao (Daniells, 2011). Recently, 15,700 hectares of the banana plantation had been affected (DA-Davao, 2016).
To increase the pool of potential biocontrol agents against the disease, this study screened potential biocontrol agents against banana Fusarium wilt. Specifically, this study sought to (1) Isolate potential endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria associated with Musa sp. cv. Cavendish; (2) Characterize the potential bacterial isolates culturally, morphologically, and biochemically; (3) Determine the anti- fungal activity of bacterial isolates in vitro condition; and (4) Test the plant growth-promoting effects of each potential isolate under nursery conditions.
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