Keywords:
Rhizoplane, Microflora,
Decalepis arayalpathra
, Biocontrol, Antimicrobial
Microbial communities present in the rhizoplane of plants play an essential role in both plant growth and physiological functioning. These microbes are attracted to the volatile compounds released by plants as a by product of their metabolism. Present investigation was designed to isolate and identify microbes from the rhizoplane regions of the tissue culture raised medicinal plant, Decalepis arayapathra KMA 05 clones. Two fungal species, i.e., Cladosporium sp. F42 (FJ755822) and Epicoccum nigrum (KR094452) were isolated from the rhizoplane. In antagonistic activity assay, E. nigrum was found to inhibit the growth of Cladosporium sp., thus displaying its biocontrol potential. The GC–MS analysis of fungal extracts showed bioactive molecules that can act as anti-microbial, anti-cancerous, and plant growth-promoting molecules. Moreover, exclusive and high concentration of PPDHMP from the E. nigrum supports for its involvement in Cladosporium growth inhibition. Thus the identified microbes can be exploited as biocontrol agents and plant growth-promoting microbes for D. arayalpathra.
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The authors are grateful to Prof. K. S. Rao (HOD), Department of Botany, University of Delhi, for providing necessary facilities to carry out this work. The authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow, for providing the in-vitro samples to carry out this work. Financial supports from Non-Net fellowship (no. Sch/Non-NET/139/2014-15/51) from DU/UGC are gratefully acknowledged. The author is highly thankful to Dr. Balaram.