Full Length Research Paper

Effect of endophytic Fusarium oxysporum on paralysis and mortality of Pratylenchus goodeyi

Peter Mwaura¹*, Thomas Dubois², Turoop Losenge¹, Daniel Coyne² and Esther Kahangi¹

¹Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Department of Horticulture, PO Box 62000, Nairobi, Kenya.

²International institute of Tropical Agriculture, PO Box 7878, Kampala, Uganda.

*Corresponding author: Email: pmwaura08@gmail.com. Tel: +254 721419644.

Accepted 21 July, 2009

   Abstract

Three bioassays were conducted to investigate the antagonistic effect of secondary metabolites produced by 5 endophytic Fusarium oxysporum isolates from banana (Musa spp.) plants in Kenya, against Pratylenchus goodeyi.  Percentage paralyses were recorded 3, 6 and 24 h after exposure to culture filtrates. Percentage mortality was evaluated after 48 h. All isolates caused significantly higher percentage paralysis (17.5 - 25.9%) and percentage mortality (62.3 - 72.8%) of P. goodeyi motile stages compared to the control (8.4 - 10.9% and 17.3 - 34.6%, respectively). Percentage paralysis of motile stages of P. goodeyi decreased as the length of time exposure to culture filtrates increased, while mortality increased as length of nematodes exposure to culture filtrates increased. Kenyan isolates performed equally as good as the Ugandan isolate (V5W2) in causing paralysis and mortality. Results from this study demonstrated that endophytic F. oxysporum antagonizes P. goodeyi through production of secondary metabolites.

Key words: Banana, endophyte, Fusarium oxysporum, mortality, paralysis.