Antagonistic Activities of Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Eleutherine palmifolia Flower

Abstract

Background and Objective: Endophytic fungi live in plant tissue and show no symptoms of disease in their host plants. It is known that endophytes as biological agents, can control plant diseases. In this study, isolated endophytic fungi from healthy Dayak Onion flowers were used as biocontrol agents in the control of the pathogenic fungi Fusarium spp. that causes molar disease in shallot plants. Materials and Methods: This study identifies the type of endophytic fungi molecularly isolated from Dayak onion flowers and determine the antagonistic effect of the endophytic extract against Fusarium spp. screening for endophytic fungi as antagonizing agents is carried out using the poisoned food method. Results: The results showed that two endophytic fungi isolates were obtained from healthy Dayak onion flowers, namely, EnI which was identified with the primers ITS1 and ITS4 as Fusarium solani and EnK as Neoscytalidium sp. Fusarium wilt caused by pathogenic fungi was identified as Fusarium oxysporum. The inhibitory percentage of EnI extract against the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum was 71.09% (high inhibition percentage) and the inhibition percentage of EnK was 38.54% (low inhibition percentage). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, recommend using the endophytic fungus EnI extracts (Fusarium solani ), extracted from Dayak onion flowers to control the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Key words: Antagonism, biological agents, percent inhibition, plant diseases, pathogen