Fungal Succession in Composite Soil on Staled Agar Disc at different Staling Periods

Abstract

In the present study, the fungal colony interaction of composite soil was assessed under in vitro condition in virgin and staled agar discs after different staling periods i.e. 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours by using Warcup method to examine the tolerance potential of soil mycoflora present in the composite soil against the growth substances produced by the precolonized fungal colonies. It was observed that fungal growth pattern was different in each agar disc plate. It was also noticed that there was a successive decrease in the number of fungi colonizing on the reverse side of the staled agar discs. Only the most resistant microfungi i.e., Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. luchuensis, Aspergillus sulphureus, Penicillium citrinum, Penicillium chrysogenum and Trichoderma viride were able to persist on staled agar disc after 96 and 120 hours of long staling periods.

Keywords

• Composite soil
• Soil mycoflora
• Staled growth products
• Staling Periods